



























































































































































Class __ 

Book._ 


COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



















FUNDAMENTALS and REQUIREMENTS 

-OF-— 

HEALTH and DISEASE 


IN THREE PARTS 

By THOMAS POWELL, M. D. 

I* 

MEMBER OF THE AMERICAN PUBLIC HEALTH ASSOCIATION; THE AMERICAN HEALTH 

league; and the American association for the 

ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE 


PART ONE 

THE NEW VITAL PHILOSOPHY 

EXPLAINS THE MOVEMENTS OF THE LIVING ORGANISM BY SHOWING THAT THEY ARE 
PRODUCED BY THE VITOMOTIVE-POWER; THAT THIS AGENT HAS A DYNAMIC 
EQUIVALENT OF FORTY ATMOSPHERES; WHAT THIS MIGHTY POWER 

is; from what element of the food it is devel¬ 
oped, AND HOW IT SETS THE VITAL 
MACHINERY IN MOTION 


PART TWO 

THE NEW ETIOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY 

DISCLOSES THE MEASURES, MEDICINAL, ELECTRICAL. MECHANICAL, THERMAL, 
MANUAL AND REGIMENAL, REQUIRED FOR THE ELIMINATION OF 
PATHOGEN, THE NEWLY DISCOVERED CAUSE OF DISEASE 


PART THREE 

THE NEW PROPHYLAXIS AND THERAPEUSIS 

EXPLAINS THE VARIOUS MORBID PROCESSES, FROM CONGESTION AND INFLAMATION 
TO NECROSIS. CARCINOSIS AND TUBERCULOSIS, BY DISCLOSING THE 
REMOTE AND HITHERTO UNSUSPECTED CAUSE THEREOF 


ILLUSTRATED WITH MANY ORIGINAL DRAWINGS 


THE POWELL PUBLISHING COMPANY 


LOS ANGELES. CALIFORNIA 


LONDON, ENGLAND 










Copyright, 1909 
By 

THOMAS POWELL M. D. 

Also Registered at Stationer's Hall, London. England, and published simultaneously in London, 
England, and Los Angeles, California, U. S. A. 

All Rights Reserved 



To the Medical Profession m 
General and Med ical Investigators 
m particular, this Work is in Con- 
fidence and Admiration Dedicated. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS. 


Page. 

PREFACE ... 17 


Chapter I. 

INTRODUCTION, PART ONE. 

The Basic Theories and Unsolved Problems of Modern 
Medicine .. 31 


Chapter II. 

THE STEADY INCREASE OF DISEASE. 

The most Appalling Mystery of Modern Times and 
Its Implications, Theoretical and Practical.— 72 

Chapter III. 

THE SEARCH FOR THE MASTER-KEY TO VITAL 
PHENOMENA. 

Preliminary Observations and Concepts and the Re¬ 
sulting Conclusions.. 106 


Chapter IV. 

PHOTOLYTIC DISSOCIATION—ITS PROCESSES AND 
PURPOSES. 

Showing how Energy is stored in Food; how Food- 
Energy is transformed into the Vitomotive Power; 
that this agent has a Dynamic Equivalent of 40 
Atmospheres and what this Mighty Power is. (The 
next three chapters show how this power is called 
into being and how it sets the vital machinery in 
motion) . 125 


Chapter V. 

MYO-MECHANICS AND MYO-DYNAMICS. 

A New Vital Philosophy, Comprehending a Logical 
Solution of the Unsolved Problem of Biology and 
Physiology ... 147 


8 









CONTENTS 


Chapter VI. 

THE PHILOSOPHY OF MUSCULAR CONTRACTION. 

The Rationale, or Modus Operandi, of the Vitomotive- 
Power and its auxiliary agencies, mental, nervous and 
thermal ... 176 

Chapter VII. 

THE MUSCULO-MECHANICAL AND TOXICO-VIVIFI- 
CAL PARADOXES. 

Facts Which Account for the Slowness of Medical 
Progress ... 18.1 

Chapter VIII. 

ANIMAL HEAT, OR BODY TEMPERATURE. 

A New Doctrine, showing how, when, where and from 
what this Heat is Developed... 188 

Chapter IX. 

FUNCTIONS OF THE LIVER, SPLEEN, THYROID 
GLAND AND LYMPHATICS ELUCIDATED, 
Showing in Particular that the Spleen Serves Two 


Highly Important Purposes. 191 

Chapter X. 

THE VITAL STATUTES, OR LAWS AND REQUIRE¬ 
MENTS OF LIFE ... 210 

Chapter XI. 

THE NEW THEORY OF LIFE. 

Its Harmonies, Revelations and Suggestions. 213 


Chapter XII. 

THE VALIDITY OF THE NEW VITAL PHILOSOPHY. 

A Summary of the More Important Facts that Justify 
the Adoption of the New Philosophy. 221 


INTRODUCTION, PART TWO. 


241 











CONTENTS 


1G 


Chapter XIII. 

THE EXISTING THEORIES CRITICALLY EXAMINED. 
Surprising Disclosures Concerning the Ground-work 
of the Existing Biology, Physiology and Pathology— 245 

Chapter XIV. 

PATHOGEN AND PATHOGENOSIS. 

A New Discovery, Disclosing the Hitherto Unknown 
Cause of Disease—its Nature, Origin and Modus- 
operandi _ 296 

Chapter XV. 

THE RATIONALE OF PATHOGENOSIS. 

Showing How Pathogen Gives Rise to the Various 
Morbid Processes Which Are Termed Diseases. 314 

Chapter XVI. 

THE GENESIS OF PATHOGEN. 

The Active Cause of Disease_ 336 

Chapter XVII. 

ILLNESS 

And Irritability clearly explained. 249 

Chapter XVIII. 

A COMMON COLD. 

A New and Lucid Explanation Thereof.. 350 

Chapter XIX. 

CONSTIPATION 

Fully and consistently elucidated. 353 

Chapter XX. 

PYREXIA OR FEVER. 

The Basic Cause pointed out. 354 

Chapter XXI. 

INFLAMMATION. 


A New and Lucid Explanation Thereof. 


357 




















CONTENTS 


11 


Chapter XXII. 

EPILEPSY AND CATALEPSY. 

The Mysteries thereof unraveled.. 360 

Chapter XXIII 

RHEUMATISM AND GOUT. 

The Uric Acid Diathesis Explained. 366 

Chapter XXIV. 

UTERINE DISEASES AND DISPLACEMENTS. 

The Cause thereof elucidated. 368 

Chapter XXV. 

HYPERTROPHY, ATROPHY AND OBESITY. ’ 

A New and Lucid explanation of such. 370 

Chapter XXVI. 

LOCOMOTOR ATAXIA 

Logically explained . 372 

Chapter XXVII. 

NEURASTHENIA. 

A most Revolutionary Explanation. 376 

Chapter XXVIII. 

FIBROSIS 

Scientifically accounted for. 379 

Chapter XXIX. 

TUMORS OR NEOPLASMS. 

Etiology and Morphology of Neoplasms—pointing 
out the way in which and the materials from which 
these growths are formed.-. 383 

Chapter XXX. 

CARCINOMA OR CANCER. 

Its mysteries clearly elucidated. 389 












12 


CONTENTS 


Chapter XXXI. 

HEART DISEASE AND ITS COMPLICATIONS. 

Well verified explanations.- 413 

Chapter XXXII. 

CYSTIC DISEASE 

Completely explained..- 421 

Chapter XXXIII. 

SCORBUTUS OR SCURVY 

Clearly elucidated .... 423 

Chapter XXXIV. 

IMPOTENCY AND STERILITY 

Satisfactorily explained.- 425 

Chapter XXXV. 

DIABETES MELLITUS. 

Well verified explanations.... 427 

Chapter XXXVI. 

ALBUMINURIA CHRONIUS, OR BRIGHT’S DISEASE. 

Well verified explanations... 439 

Chapter XXXVII 

PULMONARY CONSUMPTION. 

The origin of tubercles explained.. 451 

Chapter XXXVIII. 

PURPURA VARIOLOSA 

Logically accounted for.. 481 

Chapter XXXIX. 

PATHOLOGICAL COMPLICATIONS EXPLAINED_ 484 

Chapter XL. 

THE PERILS OP CHILDHOOD EXPLAINED_ 506 













CONTENTS 


13 


Chapter XLI. 

VALIDITY OF THE NEW ETIOLOGY, OR SCIENCE 


OF DISEASE. 

Logically and experimentally demonstrated_ 514 

INTRODUCTION, PART THREE.... 52" 

Chapter XLII. 


THE NEW PROPHYLAXIS AND THERAPEUSIS. 

Comprehending a Radical Departure in the Preven¬ 
tion and Treatment of Disease—namely, the avoid¬ 
ance and removal of the Remote and hitherto Un¬ 
suspected Cause thereof..._. 526 

Chapter XLIII. 

PRACTICAL VERIFICATION. 

Reports of Cases, showing that many diseases which 
had baffled all other methods are amenable to the 
new Prophylaxis and Therapeusis - 553 

Chapter XLIV. 

EPITOME OF FACTS 

Discoveries and Evidences-- 574 







PART ONE. 

THE NEW VITAL PHILOSOPHY. 

Comprehending the Basic Principles of Biology, 
Physiology and Dietetics—unraveling the manifold 
Mysteries of Vegetation, Nutrition, Nerve Action and 
Locomotion, by showing how energy is stored in 
Pood; how Nutrition is effected; how Pood-Energy 
is transformed into the vitomotive power, or Muscu¬ 
lar Energy; that this agent possesses, as its maximum 
efficiency, a Dynamic Equivalent of 600 lbs. to the 
square inch; what this Mighty Power is; from what 
element of the food it is developed; and how it sets 
the vital machinery in motion. 

























PREFACE. 


The principal object of this proemial statement is 
to acknowledge my indebtedness to medical investi¬ 
gators in general and to those of modern times in 
particular. The researches of my predecessors, em¬ 
bracing, as they have, twenty-odd centuries of time, 
greatly outweigh the thirty years that I have devoted 
to the work. While I have made, as I verily believe, 
a few very important conquests, I can but realize and 
admit that the greater credit belongs to the countless 
thousands who have led the forlorn hope in the battle 
with disease and to the smaller but equally important 
number who have endeavored to discover the seem¬ 
ingly indiscoverable agencies on which life and health 
and disease and death depend. The annals of medical 
investigation are replete with evidences of heroic 
attempts and disheartening defeats—failures which 
were more apparent than real, for every such attempt 
and failure has brought us a little nearer to the goal 
of ultimate success. 

To the records left by those who have thus gone 
down to apparent defeat I am indebted for whatever 
of success I may rightfully claim. Medical investi¬ 
gators have gone on for centuries making discoveries 
and then discovering that their discoveries were not 
discoveries, fundamentally speaking. By reason of 
a diligent study of the facts thus brought'out it may 
be said that I have reaped where they have sown, 
garnering the golden grain brought almost to matur- 

17 


18 


PREFACE 


ity in consequence of their strenuous and self- 
sacrificing labors. In other words, I have made the 
failures recorded in medical literature the stepping- 
stones to whatever of success the subject matter of 
this volume may disclose. To be still more specific, 
my predecessors have discovered and recorded a vast 
world of facts and phenomena and I have earnestly 
endeavored to discover the agencies, normal and 
abnormal, on which these occurrences chiefly depend, 
and without which Medicine must in all reason 
continue to be problematic, misleading and disap¬ 
pointing. 

In every stage of its existence Medicine has been 
comparable to a ship in distress, its officials and crew 
laboring under the necessity of trying to sail on 
tempestuous and rock-studded seas without a depend¬ 
able chart, rudder, or compass. Driven here and 
there by the rapidly shifting winds of speculation, 
the history of the medical mariner’s cruising has 
been that of a most heroic struggle for the mastery of 
the difficulties of the medical deep, attended all too 
frequently by the sad experience of being ship¬ 
wrecked, as it were, in mid-ocean or upon a bleak and 
inhospitable shore, the chagrin and practically com¬ 
plete absence of public sympathy and support at¬ 
tendant upon such failures being equivalent to the 
closing event of this metaphorical representation. 

Being fully alive to the uncertainties of his call¬ 
ing, based as it evidently was, upon facts which have 
never been clearly explained, and of the essential 
value of his cargo of human souls, the conscientious 



PREFACE 


19 


medical mariner could not escape a feeling of intense 
anxiety, insecurity and uncertainty—a strain upon 
his life and conscience of the most exhausting order. 
And, carrying the figure a little further, the shores 
of the medical deep are as a result bestrewn with 
professional wreckage—blasted hopes, grievous dis¬ 
appointments, physical suffering and untimely death. 

To pave the way for a better order of things by 
unraveling the mysteries of health and disease and 
providing prophylactic and remedial measures of a 
strictly trustworthy character have been the foremost 
objects of my professional ambition. And, as already 
stated, in substance, I have made stepping-stones of 
the successes and failures of my predecessors. 

The two poles of scientific thought are Cause and 
Effect, a definite knowledge of both constituting the 
perfect sphere of intelligence. All scientific explora¬ 
tion begins of necessity with the ascertainment of 
Effects—the facts of experience and observation— 
and should end with a definite knowledge of the un¬ 
derlying Cause or Causes. That the great leaders in 
the field of medical research have strenuously en¬ 
deavored to round out their sphere of intelligence, 
by going to the bottom of the problems of life, as 
science and reason demand, and that they have, one 
and all, fallen short of their purpose, are proposi¬ 
tions the truth of which will be made fairly evident 
by reference to accounts given by the medical his¬ 
torian. among which are the following: 

The “ Ani mi sts” of old, for example, set out with 
the intention, it seems, of unraveling the mysteries 




20 


PREFACE 


of life, but got no further in that direction than the 
formulation and promulgation of the proposition 
“that the soul performed the functions of ordinary 
life in man, while the life of the lower animals was 
controlled by ordinary mechanical principles ’ ’— 
definitions which utterly and obviously failed to 
define. 

The “Vitalists” advanced the somewhat similar 
proposition, that the phenomena of life are referable 
to a “vital principle/’ and this “differed from the 
thinking mind”—another definition which utterly 
failed to explain, for it leaves us in the dark regard¬ 
ing the principle to which it refers. 

The “ Organicists ” agreed with the Animists and 
Vitalists to the extent of saying that vital activity 
could not be explained by the laws of physics and 
chemistry, but, unlike them, contended that activity 
was a “part of the structure of the body itself”— 
another explanation that utterly and obviously failed 
to explain, for activity implies an actuating agent. 

The “Brunonian System” appeared somewhat 
later and comprehended the contention that life, 
diseases and methods of cure, are explained by the 
property of “excitability.” All exciting agencies 
were supposed to be “stimulating,” the reaction or 
apparent debilitating effects of some being due, as 
the Brunonians supposed, to a deficiency in the 
amount of the stimulus. According to Brown and his 
disciples, “the whole phenomena of life and health 
as well as disease, consisted of stimulus and nothing 
else. According to William’s “History of Science,” 



PREFACE 


21 


Harper Bros., New York, this theory, lame, as it 
evidently was, created a great stir in many and 
widely separated countries; partisans and opponents 
sprung up almost everywhere. “In Italy it was en¬ 
thusiastically supported; in England it was strongly 
opposed; while in Scotland riots took place between 
the opposing factions.” Regarding this matter this 
historian wisely remarked: “Just why this system 
should have created any stir, either for or against it, 
is not now apparent.” For in the face of all this 
riotous contention is the self-evident fact that the 
Brunonian hypothesis, like its predecessors, was per¬ 
fectly open to the fatal objection of being utterly 
inconclusive—a definition with the penumbral haze of 
something more to define—namely, the “stimulus” 
on which the “excitability” was supposed to depend. 
This doctrine broke down in consequence of the same 
weakness that proved fatal to its predecessors in the 
realm of vital philosophizing—that is, it fell into the 
confines of everlasting desuetude on account of the 
fact that it utterly failed to explain any fact or phe¬ 
nomenon that it professed to elucidate. 

The anatomists of the early part of the nine¬ 
teenth century cut short the matter, it will be remem¬ 
bered, by simply declaring that: “Muscle fibres are 
endowed with the property of contractility.” It is 
needless to say that this amounted to nothing more 
than the adding of another item to the category of 
explanations which fail to explain; for, as before 
remarked, action implies the existence and perform¬ 
ance of an actuating agent. 



22 


PREFACE 


At a somewhat later date, Prof. Schwann ad¬ 
vanced a proposition which was promptly accepted 
as an eminently correct and valuable contribution to 
medical science—namely, that: “There is one uni¬ 
versal principle of development for the elementary 
parts of organisms, however different, and this prin¬ 
ciple is the formation of cells/ ’ 

It is an easy matter to see that the generalization 
thus expressed is both incontestible and inconclusive 
—that it explains the construction but not the action 
of the body. At a somewhat later date Schwann’s 
theory w r as amended at the instance of von Mohl, by 
admitting the white blood corpuscle into the classifi¬ 
cation of cells. In consequence of this amendment 
the cell-theory has drawn to its support a vast num¬ 
ber of men of world-wide repute, constituting a 
galaxy of medical stars of the first magnitude. On a 
much more recent date this doctrine was rendered 
still more popular by the addition of the proposition 
advanced by the eminent Prof. Metchnikoff, of the 
Pasteur Institute,—namely, that the leucocyte is a 
“phagocyte,” subserving vital interests not only as a 
tissue-builder, but to the further extent of seeking, 
arresting and devouring disease-germs. 

It goes without saying that the Cell-Theory as now 
constituted has gained more adherents and aroused 
more enthusiasm than any other doctrine known to 
the annals of medicine and that the correctness of 
its claims has never been seriously if at all assailed. 

Notwithstanding the fact that this doctrine has 
passed unchallenged for the greater part of a century, 




PREFACE 


2 3 


it may safely be affirmed that it is perfectly open to 
a charge similar to that which proved fatal to its 
theoretic predecessors, the doctrines of Animists, 
Vitalists, Organicists, Brnnonians and Anatomists— 
the charge of being inconclusive . Reference is made 
not only to the evident fact that it fails to point out 
the power on which the activities of the white blood 
corpuscle, or primordial animal cell, depend, but to 
the further fact that it does not show how, or where, 
or when this detached particle becomes attached, or 
“ differentiated, ” into any one of the vital structures 
—gaps in this professedly explanatory proposition 
which is essentially fatal to its claims, and, hence, to 
the perpetuity of its prestige and influence. 

In the progress of this work it will be made per¬ 
fectly evident that the Cell Theory of Life is to say 
the least nothing more than a half-truth and that it 
leaves the activities of the vital organism—the very 
facts that it professes the more especially to explain 
—as completely enshrouded in mystery as they were 
in the long ago, when mankind first began to wonder 
what causes the muscles to undergo those energetic- 
changes of form which are collectively denominated 
muscular contraction. For this reason or in conse¬ 
quence of some other equally fortuitous circumstance, 
it is beginning to dawn upon the more discerning 
members of the medical profession that the discov¬ 
eries on which the fundamental postulates of the ex¬ 
isting system of medicine were based were not dis¬ 
coveries, fundamentally speaking, and that there is 
need of another attempt to unravel the mysteries and 



24 


PREFACE 


perplexities of the vital realm, normal and abnormal. 

By reason of the then current impression, based 
on centuries of futile effort, that the discovery of the 
basic principles of our science is impossible, the fram¬ 
ers of eighteenth century medicine resorted, as their 
predecessors had done, to the desperate alternative 
of trying to construct a science of medicine on the 
practically unscientific principle of a classification 
or systematic arrangement of the facts of experience 
and observation. 

The originators of the existing system or science 
of medicine succeeded in impressing the world to the 
effect that they had gone to the bottom of the prob¬ 
lems of life, and yet it may safely be affirmed that 
Modern Medicine is open to the same objection that 

proved so discrediting to the preceding system_ 

that is, of being scarcely more than a vast compila¬ 
tion of theories, speculations and unexplained facts. 
For this reason it may also be said that medical 
writers of today are following the time-worn example 
of explaining one fact or symptom by referring it to 
some other fact or symptom which has never been ex¬ 
plained—a dereliction from which the friends and 
exponents of the cell-theory are not at all exempt and 
which has been condemned by no less a personage 
than the eminent Professor J. Burdon Sanderson, 
fellow of the Koyal Society of England. In his lec¬ 
ture on the subject of “Ludwig and Modern Physi¬ 
ology” Dr. Sanderson referred to the fact that in 
Ludwig’s day the “Neovitalists” in attempting to 
revive the doctrine of “Vitalism” contended that the 



PREFACE 


25 


flow of the lymph is controlled not by physical laws, 
but vital ones—by the cells, living individuals, placed 
at the inlets of the system of drainage without which 
it would not work, and then proceeded to criticise 
their argument and in the following decidedly effect¬ 
ive fashion: 

“Now, it is perfectly true that living cells, like 
working bees, are both the architects of the hive and 
the sources of its activity, but if we ask how honey is 
made it is no answer to say that the bees make it. 
We do not require to be told that cells have to do with 
the making of lymph as with every process ™ *he ani¬ 
mal organism, but what we want to kno\ A s how they 
work, and to this we shall never get an answer so 
long as we content ourselves with merely explaining 
one unknown thing by another. The action of cells 
must be explained, if at all, by the same method of 
comparison with physical or chemical analogues that 
we employ in the investigation of organs.’’—From 
Smithsonian Report for 1896, page 378. , 

It is one of the most deplorable facts of human 
history that all our literature is open to this kind of 
a charge and that it involves many other evidences 
of the fact that the originators of the existing medical 
philosophy did not go to the bottom of any one of 
the great problems with which we have to deal in the 
prosecution of our professional duties. The Germ 
Theory, for instance, is by far the most important of 
the theories on which we have been depending for 
guidance, and yet it is admitted by all authorities 
of the present that it does not go to the bottom of the 
problem of infection—that the action of the germs 
depends upon a preexisting condition which has never 



36 


PREFACE 


been explained and which is variously termed the 
“predisposition/* the “susceptibility’’ and a u suit¬ 
able soil.” 

At the same time that Schwann, Liebig and others 
were working out the details of the existing system, 
four of their contemporaries—Helmholtz, Du Bois 
Reymond, Ludwig and Brucke—were endeavoring 
to unravel the mysteries of life in accordance with 
chemico-physical principles. But, according to an 
eminent authority, Ludwig frankly admitted that 
they " T ere unequal to the task and in the following 
terms: 

“We four imagined that we should constitute 
physiology on a chemico-physical foundation, and 
give it equal scientific rank with physics, but the task 
turned out to be much more difficult than we antici¬ 
pated.” 

In the progress of this work it will be made evi¬ 
dent that these parties were in the right with regard 
to the nature of the problem they undertook to solve 
and that their failure was due not to any insurmount¬ 
able difficulty, but to the paradoxical nature of the 
physical and chemical operations on which the 
activities of life depend. 

It is a perfectly discernible fact that the living 
organism is at once a physical structure and the play¬ 
ground, so to speak, of the chemical affinities and 
agencies, and yet the accredited leaders of medical 
research have allowed the matter to rest where 
Helmholtz and his associates left it, believing in all 
probability that what these confessedly well-equipped 



PREFACE 


27 


men of science could not do was beyond the range of 
human achievement. 

Undaunted by the failures now enumerated, I set 
out nearly thirty years ago with the definite purpose 
of performing the two-fold task of saving myself 
from a plainly impending physical break-down and 
by doing for the medical sciences what Sir Isaac 
Newton did for the physical. My personal and pro¬ 
fessional experiences had led me to realize that the 
most important branches of our science—physiology 
and pathology—are not as well-grounded and de¬ 
pendable as they are generally supposed to be and 
that if I would save my own life or the lives of those 
entrusted to my keeping, I would have to unravel the 
mysteries of both health and disease. In other words, 
a mysterious decline of my health and strength led 
me to realize that if we would find out how the vital 
energies are lost and how the vital structures are 
impaired, as they are in disease, we must first find out 
how the former are obtained and how the latter are 
preserved, as they are in health. Many years of 
pains-taking study and investigation, supplemented 
by a vast amount of experimentation, prophylactic 
and therapeutic, have resulted in the discovery, as I 
verily believe, of the Keys to the problems of life, 
normal and abnormal, and that the placing of the 
medical sciences upon the elevated plane of the exact 
sciences is now only a question of time and well- 
directed effort. 

The various subdivisions of this work, prepared, 
as they were, for medical readers, are confined almost 
entirely to the details of the three generalizations, 




28 


PREFACE 


physiological, pathological and therapeutic, that I 
have the honor to submit. That is to say, in the 
preparation of this work I have not only said but 
little regarding the symptoms of disease, but con¬ 
fined attention to a few of the more important 
issues, normal and abnormal, it being nothing more 
than reasonable to assume that the medical profession 
is fully competent to bring the light afforded by the 
new discoveries to bear upon the remaining problems 
of life. In short, the object of the present volume is 
to report progress in the work to which my life has 
been the more especially devoted and to set forth the 
things yet to be accomplished. At the earliest possible 
moment after the investigations here referred to shall 
have been finished a more complete work will be 
published. 

My readers are earnestly requested to make due 
allowance for the fact—for it is a fact—that in the 
preparation of this work I have labored under nu¬ 
merous and very trying disadvantages, not the least 
of which is the particularly unfortunate circumstance 
of being practically destitute of experience as a 
writer. That is to say, I am perfectly alive to the 
fact that I have not been able to set forth the results 
of my labors in a duly explicit and acceptable man¬ 
ner. I had not the slightest desire or intention of be¬ 
ing harsh, dogmatical or hypercritical, and yet I now 
see the propriety of pleading, as I now do, that in the 
plenitude of my earnestness I have come dangerously 
near the point of being open to these very charges. 

Knowing that human life is the most precious of 
all earthly possessions and that the truth regarding 




PREFACE 


29 


the decline and untimely destruction thereof is more 
than men or theories, I have not only endeavored to 
the extent of my ability to arrive at a definite knowl¬ 
edge of the truth, but gone as far in the direction of 
the verification of what I have conceived to be true 
as my means would permit. For the want of suffi¬ 
cient funds to complete the work of verification I 
found it necessary to either postpone indefinitely the 
publication of such things as I had demonstrated to 
be correct, or to adopt the unsatisfactory alterna¬ 
tive of rounding out my contention by indulging to 
some extent in interpretations which have not been 
experimentally verified. In other words, I have been 
compelled to depend here and there upon nothing 
more than a course of reasoning, or what the hyper¬ 
critical might characterize as pure speculation. And 
while it is true that I endeavored to the best of my 
ability to avoid mistakes, it must be admitted that it 
would be a most surprising circumstance if no errors 
should be found in this my first attempt to elucidate 
such complex problems as those involved in the phe¬ 
nomena of life. 

If the present work shall have no greater effect 
than that of causing the medical profession to see the 
impropriety of depending for guidance upon the 
facts of experience and observation, and that a defi¬ 
nite knowledge of forces and laws on which the facts 
are founded is the only trustworthy basis for its 
labors, I shall feel that my labors have not been en¬ 
tirely in vain. The Author. 

Los Angeles, Calif., March 31st, 1909. 




























Hi£ 

6 


CHAPTER I. 

INTRODUCTION. 

THE BASIC THEORIES AND UNSOLVED PROBLEMS OF 
MODERN MEDICINE. 

Every individual who is at all familiar with the 
details of the subject will freely concede that the 
Human Body is at once the most precious, the most 
interesting and the most unfortunate member of the 
matchless Imperium of Animated Nature. It will 
also be admitted that it involves the greatest and most 
inscrutible mysteries that the scientific world has 
ever encountered. Starting out in the remote past 
with a compactness of fibre and a sufficiency of vital¬ 
ity to enable it, according to Bible History, to endure 
the vicissitudes of mundane existence for centuries, 
this “Masterpiece of Creation” has declined in al¬ 
most every particular and to such an extent that its 
period is but a span and its frailties and sufferings 
are appalling—an outcome which has for centuries 
defied explanation. 

The unraveling of the mysteries involved in the 
decline of human life and health and the mitigation 
of the suffering connected therewith have been at 
once the greatest requirement of the world and the 
foremost object of scientific and philanthropic en¬ 
deavor. The acquirement of the requisite knowledge 
has been fraught with many difficulties, some of 
which have seemed to be insurmountable. For nature 
has so arranged the various departments of her vast 

31 


32 


INTRODUCTION 


empire that the agencies on which the activities 
thereof depend—the things we need most of all to 
know—are completely concealed within or beneath a 
vast world of complex and seemingly diverse phe¬ 
nomena—a coquettish masking of her operations 
which arrests the attention, challenges the admiration 
and taxes to the uttermost the discernment of the 
most capable and best equipped investigators. In 
addition to these inherent difficulties is the unfor¬ 
tunate circumstance that the would-be discoverer 
labors under a more or less ponderous load of mis¬ 
beliefs—the mental bias produced by the opinions, 
theories and speculations of his preceptors and pre¬ 
decessors. In other words, on account of the acci¬ 
dents, as it were, of early training the average 
investigator is afflicted, if I may say it, with spherical 
aberration. The lens through which things must be 
viewed being distorted or imperfect, the image pic¬ 
tured on the retina of the mind must be correspond¬ 
ingly imperfect. In short, the conditions are such 
that the objects of investigation appear, generally 
speaking, not as they are in reality, but in false colors 
and distorted relations. For this reason many theo¬ 
ries have in the progress of time been advanced, tried, 
found wanting and laid aside. 

THE SLOWNESS OF MEDICAL PROGRESS. 

The slowness of medical progress finds extenua¬ 
tion in the well-known circumstance that the medical 
investigator labors under the further and exceedingly 
trying restriction of having to deal with things en- 




INTRODUCTION 


33 


dowed with life and feeling—mechanisms which can¬ 
not be taken apart and viewed in detail, but must be 
inspected at long range, as it were, and for the most 
part by the eye of the mind—the very instrument that 
has been more or less distorted by the accidents of 
early training. 

For these reasons medical investigation has con¬ 
sumed many centuries of time and has been attended 
with the most unexpected and essentially dishearten¬ 
ing disappointments known to the annals of science. 
But these mishaps, though grave and of frequent oc¬ 
currence, have served not to diminish, but to augment 
and intensify the inherent desire for the much needed 
fund of information. In other words, instead of 
growing weary or hopeless in the prosecution of a 
task beset with a seemingly interminable series of 
disappointments, the leaders of medical investigation 
have pressed forward undaunted and undismayed, 
continuing resolute and keenly expectant under cir¬ 
cumstances which would have clothed the average 
member of the race in the habiliments of utter 
despair. 

THE BIRTH OF MODERN MEDICINE. 

By reason of this unwavering loyalty to the most 
important of all human interests, the nineteenth cen¬ 
tury witnessed the magnificent spectacle of an im¬ 
mense, well qualified and splendidly equipped army, 
as it were, of investigators, struggling as those of the 
preceding ages had never done with the manifold 
problems of Health and Disease—in fields of labor 
which afforded for its study and disentanglement an 



34 


INTRODUCTION 


unparalleled complication of things visible and 
invisible, material and immaterial, normal and 
abnormal. 

The outcome of this latest and most elaborate at¬ 
tempt to unravel the mysteries and perplexities of the 
vital domain is embodied in that stupendous compli¬ 
cation of facts, theories and speculations which is 
proudly referred to in all civilized lands as Modern 
Medical Science—a pride which is not without appar¬ 
ent justification, for the object thereof amounted to 
a practically complete and apparently final revolu¬ 
tion in the theory and practice of medicine. The 
comprehensiveness of this change may be seen by 
reference to the obvious fact that the system thus 
brought into being embraces as its fundamental pos¬ 
tulates several new theories and as its superstruc- 
tural elements a new physiology, a new dietetics, a 
new hygiene, a new etiology, a new pathology, a new 
prophylaxis, a new diagnosis, a new materia medica, a 
new therapeusis, a new surgery and a new literature. 

The new physiology, or science of life, here re¬ 
ferred to has as its fundamental postulates those 
theories which are generally referred to as the laws 
of life and health— namely, the cell theory, the 

DOCTRINE OF METABOLISM, the NITROGENOUS FOOD THE¬ 
ORY and the respiratory food hypothesis. Closely 
allied to the foregoing are two doctrines regarding 
the functions and operations of the vegetable king¬ 
dom, the one purporting to explain the growth of 
plants, while the other professes to elucidate the 
storage of energy therein. These theories have not 



INTRODUCTION 


35 


been named, it appears, and hence, I will venture to 
call the former the chlorophyl hypothesis, and the 
latter the sunbeam theory. 

The newly-devised etiology and pathology, con¬ 
stituting the existing theory of disease, have as their 
chief cornerstones, or most fundamental proposi¬ 
tions, the cellular pathology, and the doctrine of a 
causa viva, better known as the germ-theory of 

DISEASE. 

The medical philosophy here referred to was pro¬ 
mulgated, it will be remembered, at a critical period 
in the history of theoretic and practical medicine. 
The long-prevalent custom of depending upon symp¬ 
toms alone for guidance had proved unsatisfactory. 
The exhibition of remedies had assumed massive and 
heroic proportions—massive in the sense of including 
many drugs in a single prescription, and heroic, in 
the sense of extremely large and offensive doses. 
Pharmacy had thus been forced into “poly-phar¬ 
macy” and of the worst order at that. Scarification, 
Cupping, Puncturing, Phlebotomy, or blood-letting, 
and other depleting measures had passed the zenith 
of their popularity. The Mercurial, Arsenical and 
Ferruginous preparations had been extensively em¬ 
ployed, and not infrequently with baleful effects. 
Stimulants, narcotics, depletives and counter-irri¬ 
tants had also been extensively employed and discred¬ 
ited. The infectious diseases had so completely 
baffled the investigations and remedial resources of 
the period that they had won and received the credit 
of being “self-limited.” Reactionary movements 



36 


INTRODUCTION 


under the leadership of Hahnemann, Thompson and 
Scudder, had brought “sectarian medicine’’ into 
being. In a word, the general outcome in the battle 
with disease had not proved satisfactory and as a 
result the intelligent public had become sufficiently 
restive to justify the conclusion that a crisis in mat¬ 
ters medical was imminent. According to a medical 
work published at the time, this restiveness had be¬ 
come so evident and pronounced that our most 
representative medical organization, the American 
Medical Association, adopted a resolution embody¬ 
ing the following frank and essentially stirring 
statement of facts and requirements. 

“It is wholly incontestable that there exists a 
widespread dissatisfaction with what is called the 
regular, or old allopathic, system of medical practice. 
Multitudes of people both in this country and in 
Europe, express an utter want of confidence in physi¬ 
cians and their physic. The cause is evident; erro¬ 
neous theory; and springing from it injurious, often 
—very often—fatal practice. Nothing will now sub¬ 
serve the absolute requisitions of an intelligent com¬ 
munity but a medical doctrine founded upon right 
reason, in harmony with and avouched by the un¬ 
erring laws of nature and of the vital organism, and 
authenticated and confirmed by successful results.” 

In short, both the medical profession and the gen¬ 
eral public had been forced by long experience to 
realize that the then existing system of medicine had 
been “weighed in the balance and found wanting,” 
and that a change for the better was urgently needed. 

Under these opportune and highly propitious cir¬ 
cumstances those remarkably ingenious and plausible 




INTRODUCTION 


37 


theories on which we have long depended for guidance 
were projected, so to speak, into the long disconcerted 
arena of theoretic and practical medicine. 

APPARENT SUPERIORITY OF MODERN MEDICINE. 

This newly devised medical philosophy appealed 
strongly to those who had become aware of the essen¬ 
tial weakness and well-demonstrated inadequacy of 
the then existing though decadent system, and for 
several reasons: First, its fundamental postulates 
were of the remarkably ingenious and plausible order, 
impressing the student to the effect that the system 
of which they formed the ground-work was a matter, 
not of “mere conjecture,’’ as one of the fathers in 
medicine had affirmed with reference to the system of 
his day and age, but of fact, nearly everything to 
which it (the new system) appeals for support being 
open to either ocular or tactile demonstration; sec¬ 
ond, it was the handiwork, so to speak, of the highest 
intelligence, the maturest judgment, and the ripest 
experience known to the annals of medical investiga¬ 
tion; third, it was rounded out amid the matchless 
splendors of nineteenth-century civilization, when 
various instruments of precision, together with the 
light afforded by numerous sciences and systems 
could be utilized in the study of vital phenomena and 
in the verification of the resulting conclusions; 
fourth, it pointed out those hitherto unseen and un¬ 
suspected agencies which are responsible for the 
transmission of certain forms of disease from one in¬ 
dividual to another if not for their causation, de 



38 


INTRODUCTION 


novo; fifth, it seemed to afford a correct explanation 
of the mysteries of nutrition and locomotion, point¬ 
ing, as it did, to the appearance and disappearance, 
the “ vital duplication ’ and the “ amoeboid move¬ 
ments” of the “primordial animal cell”; sixth, it ac¬ 
counted for many diseases, by attributing them, as 
Prof. Virchow, the originator of the proposition, 
put it, to an “increase in the number of the elements” 
(of what were then called the “colorless corpuscles”) 
and to the dissolution of these “elements,” the two 
classes of changes constituting the greater part of 
Virchow’s celebrated “Cellular Pathology.” 

That there was much in this newly devised medi¬ 
cal philosophy which was eminently calculated to se¬ 
cure its adoption in exchange for that which had been 
found wanting, as above stated, is an undeniable 
fact, and since it is the purpose of this volume to 
account for the fact that it has not proved to be as 
dependable as the profession was led by its apparent 
plausibility to expect, attention will be called, first to 
its leading postulates and then to the facts to which 
these doctrines appeal for support. After having 
refreshed the memory of the reader regarding the 
various theories on which he has been depending for 
guidance in the battle with disease, it will be much 
easier no doubt to explain to his satisfaction the dis¬ 
appointments that he has encountered. 

That is to say, attention will be called in regular 
order to the Respiratory and Nitrogenous Food The¬ 
ories; the Doctrine of Metabolism; the Cell-Theory; 
the Cellular Pathology and the Germ Theory of 
disease. 



INTRODUCTION 


39 


THE RESPIRATORY FOOD HYPOTHESIS. 

This highly popular doctrine was originated, it 
will be remembered, by the most eminent chemist that 
flourished at any time within the first half of the 
nineteenth century, the celebrated Professor Justus 
von Liebig, of Munich. It professes to account for 
the color animalis, or animal heat, and appeals for 
support to two demonstrable facts: First, the fact 
that the various hydrocarbons and carbohydrates— 
fats, oils, sugars, syrups and starches—commonly 
used for food—possess very large percentages of the 
combustible elements—namely, carbon and hydro¬ 
gen; second, the fact that the combustion of these 
substances is attended with the display of an enor¬ 
mous amount of heat, the measure of which has for a 
long time been expressed in “calories,” the calory 
having been adopted, it will be remembered, as the 
unit of temperature in treating of the heat require¬ 
ments of the living organism and of the relative 
values not only of the above named articles of diet, 
but of others as well. 

By reason of the ease with which the heat-produc¬ 
ing capabilities of these substances may be demon¬ 
strated in a crucible or other suitable device, and of 
the apparent correctness of the theoretic assumption 
that the oxidation of the same in the living organism 
gives rise to animal heat, the Respiratory Food 
Hypothesis has long held sway as a ruling principle 
in dietetic management. On this popular and widely 
disseminated doctrine is based both the extensive use 
of the fats, oils, sugars, syrups and starches by the 



40 


INTRODUCTION 


general public, and the fact that it is customary to 
prescribe the use of such in those diseases wherein a 
subnormal temperature is either present or appar¬ 
ently impending. 

THE NITROGENOUS FOOD THEORY. 

The Nitrogenous Food Theory, has never been set 
forth as such, and yet the fact of the existence of 
something of the kind is too plain to admit of suc¬ 
cessful contradiction. That is to say, the idea evi¬ 
dently prevails in medical circles, cropping out in the 
writings of medical men in general, that nitrogen is 
the prime essential, or most important element, of 
food. This doctrine is complementary to the long 
existent contention that the tissues of the body are 
destroyed in the development of the vital energies; 
that tissues thus destroyed are rebuilt from food and 
that this calls for those articles which are rich in 
nitrogen. Hence, the authoritative and oft repeated 
contention, that the “ nitrogenous balance must be 
maintained,” and that it is necessary, therefore, to 
see that the victims of consumption and other wasting 
diseases are supplied with a corresponding amount 
of the nitrogenous foods, by which is meant such 
articles, as meats, eggs, cheese, cereals and legumes. 

The theory in question is based upon four demon¬ 
strable facts: First, that those foods which are said to 
be rich in nitrogen (meats, eggs, the casein of milk 
and the various cereals and legumes) are the most 
nourishing of all alimentary substances; second, that 
these so-called nitrogenous foods, and the tissues of 




INTRODUCTION 


41 


the body are composed of the same elements and in 
about the same proportions, the percentage of nitro¬ 
gen in each being practically the same; third, that the 
consumption of these foods is attended by an increase 
of the number of those reputed builders and defend¬ 
ers of the body, the “leucocytes,” or “protoplasmic 
cells”; fourth, that the exclusive use of this class of 
foods is attended by the discharge of a very large 
amount of nitrogen salts. This theory has enjoyed 
a long season of popularity and yet it is an undeniable 
fact that the notion that nitrogen is the prime essen¬ 
tial of food is wholly fallacious, having no other 
foundation than an erroneous supposition and a mis¬ 
interpretation of facts—errors which have led to a 
desperate misuse or abuse of the most valuable of all 
foods, as I shall show in a subsequent chapter. 

THE DOCTRINE OF METABOLISM. 

The Doctrine of Metabolism starts out with the 
incontestable proposition that the growth of the body 
and the repair of its contused and lacerated members 
depend upon assimilation, or the transformation of 
food substances into animal tissues, proceeds by af¬ 
firming that the white blood corpuscle is a tissue, and 
winds up with the claim that all parts of the body (of 
the matured as well as the growing body), the osseous 
structures, or bony framework, not excepted, are con¬ 
stantly being torn down and built up again, after the 
manner indicated by the cell-theory. 

It will be well to note in passing that this doctrine 
has two grand divisions. One of these divisions is 




42 


INTRODUCTION 


called “ anabolism ” while the other is termed “ kata- 
holism^’ The former professes to define the culmi¬ 
nating event of the nutritive process, or nutrition, 
while the latter aims to account for the materials that 
are discharged in the antithetical processes of elimi¬ 
nation. For reasons which will appear later on, I 
will venture to restate this dual and remarkably 
popular hypothesis and in the reverse order. In pur¬ 
suance of this purpose I would say, the doctrine of 
katabolism teaches that in the performance of their 
functions the various parts of the living organism, 
the bony structures not excepted, are broken down, 
or decomposed, and borne to the outer world in the 
shape of waste matter, and that the doctrine of ana¬ 
bolism asserts that the tissues thus destroyed are 
built up again from the food. 

This bipartite doctrine is not always nor even gen¬ 
erally referred to in these terms, its tissue-destruction 
hypothesis (katabolism) being the more frequently 
referred to as “retrograde tissue metamorphosis,” 
while its tissue-building hypothesis (anabolism) is 
still more frequently designated by the term, assimi¬ 
lation or by its technical equivalent, “histogenesis.” 

In short, the Doctrine of Metabolism involves the 
contention that nutrition and assimilation are one 
and the same thing. 

The Metabolic Hypothesis owes its widespread 
popularity and presumably its very existence to two 
classes of plainly discernible facts, which have seemed 
to be open to no other interpretation than that which 
was placed upon them by the originators of this 




INTRODUCTION 


43 


notable doctrine. The first of these classes consists 
in the continuous succession of wears and repairs 
that are evidently going on in certain structures, as 
the hair, nails, skin, epidermis and mucous mem¬ 
brane, while the second embraces the alternating ap¬ 
pearance and disappearance, or apparent destruc¬ 
tion and reconstruction, of the leucocytes, or so-called 
“white blood cells.’’ In short, the plainly evident 
fact, that certain parts of the human body together 
with certain cell-like objects floating in the life- 
stream are continually being destroyed and repro¬ 
duced has been interpreted to mean that all other 
parts of the living organism are undergoing a similar 
change and that in the course of a comparatively 
short period of time every individual part of the 
vital machinery, the bony framework not excepted, 
is broken down and rebuilt from the food. 

In another chapter it will be shown that the most 
popular part of this theory is a misinterpretation of 
facts, in which event the reader will hardly fail to 
realize, as he certainly should, that facts without 
principles to explain them are essentially misleading 
and that what we need and must have is a code of 
principles which will explain the facts, not a few, 
but all the facts with which we have to deal in caring 
for the sick and the well. 

THE CELL-THEORY OF LIFE. 

The Cell-Theory involves what may be termed 
a major and a minor premise. It presents as its 
major premise the incontestable proposition that all 
life, whether animal or vegetable begins with a cell 



44 


INTRODUCTION 


and that every living thing, whether vegetable or an¬ 
imal, is essentially an aggregation of cells. It ad¬ 
vances as its minor premise the apparently undeni¬ 
able contention that the leucocyte, or white blood cor¬ 
puscle, is a living organism, and is to be considered 
the “primordial animal cell.” 

It goes without saying that this doctrine has 
proved to be the most captivating of all medical doc¬ 
trines, and that this is referable to the fact that it 
possesses three essentially fascinating features; first, 
it is founded upon demonstrable facts; second, it pro¬ 
fesses to unravel the mystery of life; third, it in¬ 
volves that which is generally believed to be the most 
important generalization known to the annals of 
science. 

The Cell-Theory presents in support of its major 
premise, or most important philosophic asset, the 
plainly discernible fact that every living object, 
whether animal or vegetable, is in its essence a cellu¬ 
lar structure. It presents in support of its minor 
premise an equally discernible and extremely allur¬ 
ing fact—namely, the motility of an object which is 
both open to microscopic demonstration and emi¬ 
nently suggestive of the long existent opinion that 
it is the starting point, so to speak, of all animal life 
—namely, that familiar occupant of the circulating 
system which is variously termed, the “leucocyte,” 
the “white blood corpuscle,” the “primordial animal 
cell” and the “physical basis of life.” 

The correctness of this decision has seemed to be 
self-evident, and because, at a certain period of its 




INTRODUCTION 


45 


history, the leucocyte, or so-called white blood-cell, 
appears as a motus corpusculum, or moving body. 
Seeing is believing, as long ago expressed in the term, 
vide et crede, and, hence, to see the leucocyte send 
forth and then withdraw its tentacles, or “ pseudo- 
podia,” after the manner of the projection and re¬ 
traction of the horns (so-called) of the snail, and 
with the effect of locomotion at that, is but to be con¬ 
vinced that it is as certainly a thing of life as is the 
snail; in other words, to watch the “white blood cor¬ 
puscle ” in the performance of its multifarious evo¬ 
lutions, from “ameboid progression” on up to “vital 
duplication,” and in the absence of any information 
to the contrary, at that, is but to incur the convic¬ 
tion that it is beyond all peradventure a living or¬ 
ganism and the very beginning of animal life, as the 
biologists and physiologists of the entire civilized 
world have long and enthusiastically contended. 

It goes without saying that the Cell-Theory is 
regarded in all scientific circles as the most important 
generalization known to the annals of science and as 
a thoroughly established scientific proposition. 

It will also be freely conceded that nearly all of 
the biologic and physiologic teaching of this day and 
age is based upon the proposition, above referred to 
as the minor premise of the cell-theory, that the 
white blood corpuscle, is the primordial animal cell, 
and that the material from which it is formed—vari¬ 
ously termed, bioplasm, cytoplasm, protoplasm, sar- 
code, blastema and germinal matter—is the “physi¬ 
cal basis of life.” 



46 


INTRODUCTION 


The three theories now briefly described are those 
to which medical writers refer, if I mistake not, 
whenever they nse such terms as “laws of life, 9 ’ 
“laws of health,’’ and “scientific physiology.” 

THE CELLULAR PATHOLOGY. 

The Cellular Pathology teaches that many morbid 
processes are due, as its illustrious originator, Pro¬ 
fessor Rudolph Virchow, has stated with all the em¬ 
phasis that italics are capable of imparting, to “an 
abnormal increase of the number of the elements ”— 
meaning the colorless blood corpuscles—and the 
retrograde metamorphosis of these protoplasmic 
cells. Since the promulgation of these theoretic con¬ 
cepts the aim of many investigators has been to trace 
all disease to an abnormal change in these elements, 
which change is attributed by medical writers in gen¬ 
eral to the presence in the blood of a “toxine” of 
some kind, or a combination of such. 

It may in truth be said that, with perhaps a sin¬ 
gle exception, the Cellular Pathology appeals for 
support to a greater array and a more extensive va¬ 
riety of facts than any other subdivision of Medical 
Science, for this appeal includes the greater part of 
the facts and occurrences that are referred to by 
the hematologists and pathologists in general, com¬ 
prehending in particular the descensive changes that 
are detected from time to time in the white blood cor¬ 
puscles, and which are supposed to depend upon the 
presence in the circulation of a toxine of some kind, 
as above stated. 



INTRODUCTION 


47 


In view of the fact that the leucocyte is regarded 
by the highest authorities as a living organism and a 
part or product of the physical basis of life, it is not 
to be wondered that the destruction of these “ ele¬ 
ments” has been deemed a very serious matter in all 
medical circles, domestic and foreign. 

THE GERM THEORY OF DISEASE. 

The Germ Theory of Disease, sometimes desig¬ 
nated as the Bacterial Pathology, is based upon a 
vast number of entities, which are perfectly open to 
microscopic inspection—namely, those infinitesimal 
organisms which are concerned in the transmission 
of certain diseases from one individual to another 
and of which there are many genera, the bacterium, 
the spirillum, the micrococcus, etc., etc. Upon this 
broad and essentially valuable foundation rests four 
important superstructures—namely, (1), the science 
of bacteriology; (2), modern sanitary science, or pre¬ 
ventive medicine; (3), aseptic and antiseptic sur¬ 
gery; (4), anti-bacterial therapeutics, or germicidal 
medication. 

Upon the principles and achievements of these 
correlated departments is founded the long existent 
presumption that cancer and many other maladies 
which have not as yet found a place in the category 
of the infectious diseases, are in reality due to un¬ 
discovered pathogenic organisms. 

The system of medicine which has for its basis the 
two sets of theories now referred to, originated, as it 
was, by men of incontestible and generally recognized 



48 


INTRODUCTION 


ability and authority, and founded, as it is, upon dem¬ 
onstrable facts, has impressed both the medical pro¬ 
fession and the general public to the effect that it is 
eminently worthy of being regarded by all mankind 
as 4 ‘ rational medicine, ’ ’ or 6 6 scientific medicine, ’ ’ and, 
hence, as something near a finality of its kind. 

Now, there is no denying the fact that a science 
formulated by men of generally recognized authority 
and supported by demonstrable facts and occurrences 
has the appearance of being good, very good. Never¬ 
theless, the annals of science and experience have 
made it perfectly plain that facts and authorities do 
not constitute a proper basis for any branch or de¬ 
partment of science. Experience has shown, in the 
first place, that facts without principles to explain 
them are essentially misleading, and in the next place, 
that authorities are fallible beings and are liable, 
therefore, to arrive at erroneous conclusions. Of 
course, a knowledge of facts is indispensible, for they 
are the only indications we have or can have of the 
things we need to know—namely, the underlying 
causes and ruling principles . 

Let it be carefully noted in passing that I have 
no desire to discredit a knowledge of facts, or to cast 
reflections upon any one of our authorities. Such 
men are not to be lightly regarded, but honored and 
revered; for they perform a very important part in 
the eventful drama of scientific progression, lending 
the weight of their judgment and influence when the 
more dependable foundation of a knowledge of the 
“axiomatic first truths'’ is as yet undetermined and 




INTRODUCTION 


49 


the need of the assurance that a strong personality is 
capable of imparting is keenly felt. Nevertheless, it 
should be carefully noted and remembered that the 
greatest of men are liable to blunder; that the blun¬ 
dering of such may bring disaster to countless thou¬ 
sands of human beings, and that the utterances of all 
such must, therefore, be carefully scrutinized. 

HELPFULNESS OF GREAT AUTHORITIES. 

While it is true that men of authoritative calibre 
may and often do blunder in their efforts to further 
the interests of science and that their blundering may 
be attended with fearful consequences, it must be ad¬ 
mitted that the theories advanced by such, whether 
right or wrong, are valuable factors in the world’s 
progression; for the ultimate result of the practical 
application of any false theory is in the nature of 
what may be termed a demonstration by exclusion. 
The record of every failure of the kind in question is 
a lighthouse on the rocky shore of scientific adven¬ 
ture, enabling the wide-awake and duly posted ex¬ 
plorer of subsequent date to see that nothing but dis¬ 
appointment and disaster is to be expected in that 
particular direction. 

Progress in science, as elsewhere, depends in large 
measure on the application of the cut-and-try prin¬ 
ciple—theorizing, scanning, testing, recording; and 
then comes the finality of rejection or adoption. In 
short, we approach truth, the groundwork of science, 
on the stepping-stones of error. 

Within the twenty-odd centuries of medical his- 



50 


INTRODUCTION 


tory many medical doctrines of the highest parentage 
have been adopted and, after having aroused great 
expectations, were found wanting and consigned to 
the charnel house of the hypothetical vagaries and 
exploded theories. Nevertheless, the work expended 
in their formulation was not in vain, for, as already 
intimated, almost every theory which has succumbed 
to the exactions of time and experience has brought 
us one step nearer to the goal at which we are aiming 
—namely, a definite knowledge of the fundamental 
truths. 

The theories of the Animists, Vitalists and Or- 
ganicists of old, together with those composing the 
so-called “Brunonian System, ” had their periods 
of birth, growth and maturity and, after outliving 
their prestige and whatever of usefulness they pos¬ 
sessed, they gave place, so to speak, to other candi¬ 
dates for scientific and popular preferment. 

Eighteenth century medicine had, in common with 
the foregoing, its periods of birth, development and 
maturity. The most conspicuous features of the sys¬ 
tem in question may be characterized as heroic medi¬ 
cation and polypharmacy, as already stated. In the 
progress of time the devotees thereof were brought 
face to face, as it were, with the fact that a crisis was 
near at hand—the one referred to in a preceding 
paragraph as being imminent at the time when the 
now regnant system of medicine was promulgated. 

In this instance, the principle of demonstration 
by exclusion proved to be very valuable, for it 
brought us nearer the truth by discrediting those 



INTRODUCTION 


51 


crudities that formed the chief characteristics of the 
decadent system—heroic medication and poly¬ 
pharmacy. 

Nineteenth and twentieth century medicine, the 
theoretic offspring of the ablest talent known to the 
annals of medicine and the pride par excellence of the 
medical domain, has, in common with everything of 
the kind, had its periods of birth, development and 
maturity. And by reason of its timely advent, of the 
apparent completeness of its occupancy of the field 
it assumed to govern, of the light that it cast upon the 
problems of infection, of the plausibility of its in¬ 
terpretations of the facts and phenomena of life, and 
of its being founded upon demonstrable facts, Mod¬ 
ern Medicine was promptly and enthusiastically ac¬ 
cepted by both the medical profession and the general 
public. And while it is true that it is deemed su¬ 
perior to the preceding system and that it has en¬ 
joyed a long period of public as well as professional 
favor, it must be admitted that it has, to say the least, 
passed the zenith of popular confidence and appre¬ 
ciation. It may, indeed, be said that the confidence 
of the public in the existing theory and practice has 
undergone an enormous decline, the phenomenal 
growth and popularity of the multitude of opposing 
movements of somewhat recent origin—“ suggestive 
therapeutics,” “Christian Science” and the “Em¬ 
manuel movement,” etc., etc.,—being the criteria. 

SECRET OF LOSS OF PRESTIGE. 

The secret of this wide-spread estrangement is not 
at all hard to find, for it resides in the perfectly ob- 



52 


INTRODUCTION 


vious fact that the measures suggested by the current 
teaching have not proved as efficacious as reason de¬ 
mands—that in spite of our best endeavors, in the 
practical application of the existing theories, there 
has been an enormous increase in the occurrence and 
fatality of many diseases. 

I do not wish to pose as an alarmist, but I do wish 
to be true to my convictions, true to my profession, 
true to my countrymen, true to the whole human 
race, to do which is but to advance the opinion, based 
on the facts and statistical disclosures set forth in 
the following chapter, that we are facing an impend¬ 
ing crisis of fearful character and enormous propor¬ 
tions, greater by far than that which stared our pre¬ 
decessors in the face, as above stated. 

And what is the meaning of all these indications 
of inefficiency, disappointment and oncoming dis¬ 
aster, if not that Nature, the most inexorable of all 
educators, has again brought us face to face, as it 
were, with the all-important truth that the validity 
of a scientific proposition depends, in the last analy¬ 
sis, not upon the dictum of any authority, however 
eminent; nor upon the facts to which it appeals for 
support; nor upon the number or character of its 
advocates; nor yet upon the length of time that it 
has passed unchallenged, but upon the possession of 
the FUNDAMENTAL ATTRIBUTES—Upon its truths; its 
harmonies; its logical features; its explanatory capa¬ 
bilities ; the success that attends its practical applica¬ 
tion ; the absence or rareness of contradictory occur¬ 
rences, and last, but not least, upon its conclusive- 



INTRODUCTION 


53 


ness— that is, upon its ability to settle the various 
questions which belong in the province that it aspires 
or professes to govern. 

PROFESSIONAL FEALTY EXEMPLIFIED. 

It goes without saying that the rank and file of 
the medical profession have pressed forward in the 
confident belief that these qualities are possessed by 
the basic theories of Modern Medicine, and that the 
only remaining prerequisite to success was a mere 
matter of detail—the determination of the undeter¬ 
mined facts. Having acquired what seemed to be a 
definite knowledge of the 6 ‘primordial animal cell” 
and of the life-supporting, tissue-building, heat- 
giving and disease-producing agencies, it seemed to 
be perfectly evident that we would be able to ac¬ 
complish on logical lines and with comparative ease, 
not only the prevention of those weaknesses and 
maladies which had seemed to be unavoidable, but the 
eradication of those disorders which had proved to be 
incurable. Elated by the prospect thus held out, some 
of the more optimistic went so far, it will be remem¬ 
bered, as to predict that the time would eventually 
come when even the “Great White Plague” would 
be practically if not entirely “stamped out.” 

With the good opinions and glowing expectations 
referred to in the preceding pages as the incentives 
and the most efficient equipment that the inventive 
genius of modern times could produce as the means, 
the investigation of foods and their uses and of dis¬ 
eases and their causes and requirements, was under- 



54 


INTRODUCTION 


taken and pushed forward in the most energetic 
manner, the various participants in the work striv¬ 
ing, it may be well supposed, to comply as nearly as 
possible with theoretic considerations. Theory hav¬ 
ing affirmed, for example, that nutrition consists in 
the “rebuilding” of “wornout tissues” and that dis¬ 
ease is due to agencies whose aggregate effect is that 
of 66 preponderant disintegration,” otherwise termed 
“retrograde tissue metamorphosis,” attempts were 
made to reverse such situations by prescribing those 
foods which are theoretically capable of producing 
preponderant nutrition —namely, those alimentary 
substances which are authoritatively declared to be 
appropriate and are variously referred to as the 
nitrogenous, the histogenetic and the tissue-building 
foods. Again, theory having asserted that the com¬ 
municable diseases owe their origin and much if not 
most of their subsequent history to the action of in¬ 
fective organisms, the medical profession taxed its 
ingenuity to the utmost, or nearly so, in the produc¬ 
tion and verification, in vitro or otherwise of germ- 
destroying agencies. It may be said that the various 
theories now regnant as guides in practical and pre¬ 
ventive medicine have, to say the least, been fairly 
tested; for it must be admitted that the medical pro¬ 
fession has been neither slow nor parsimonious in its 
attempts to put the fundamental postulates of Med- 
ern Medicine to the test of nutritional, prophylactic 
and therapeutic experimentation. 

More than six decades of time have passed into 
history since the Respiratory Food theory was pro- 



INTRODUCTION 


55 


mulgated; almost as much time has transpired since 
the Cell-Theory of Life and the Nitrogenous Food 
Theory were adopted, and nearly three decades of 
time have come and gone since the Germ Theory of 
Disease silenced its last opponent, practically speak¬ 
ing, and became the dominant principle in the settle¬ 
ment of many questions, pathogenic and prophy¬ 
lactic. In short, the existing system of medicine was 
received with gladness; was productive of great ex¬ 
pectations; was enthusiastically obeyed and has un¬ 
doubtedly been on trial for a sufficient length of time 
to enable it to demonstrate its trustworthiness, if this 
be within the range of its capabilities. 

BAFFLING EXPERIENCES. 

It was confidently expected that the battle with 
diseases in general and with the infective disorders in 
particular would be attended with great and incon- 
testible victories, but instead of this we were con¬ 
fronted, as a rule, it will be remembered, with the 
most baffling and provoking experiences that could 
well be imagined. Instead of the particularly im¬ 
pressive achievements that seemed to be within easy 
reach of even the mediocre, the most skilful practi¬ 
tioners were, to say the least, confronted with very 
nearly the same percentage of failures that the de¬ 
votees of the preceding medical regime had experi¬ 
enced. Those diseases which had in times past been 
sufficiently intractable to earn the title of being 4 4 self* 
limited” have been able, so to speak, to maintain their 
right to be so considered. In other words, fevers and 



56 


INTRODUCTION 


infectious diseases have almost if not completely 
maintained their former characteristics in spite of 
the free use of the plainly indicated measures, the 
current literature being the criterion. It was found, 
in particular that Pulmonary Consumption could be 
neither stamped out nor materially, if at all, modified 
by the use of those agencies which were theoretically 
appropriate—namely, the germicides, and that it 
were advisable, therefore, to depend upon an out-door 
life and the tissue-building foods for a cure in such 
cases. In other words, the effort to stamp out the 
Great White Plague by the use of germicides and the 
destruction of the sputa of consumptives having 
proved ineffectual, we were compelled to resort to the 
desperate alternative of advising the emaciated and 
enfeebled victims of consumption to endure the rigors 
and brave the dangers of outdoor sleeping and of an 
out-door life in regions where the mercury plays hide- 
and-seek the winter long with the zero mark. 

In short, experience has seemed at least to indi¬ 
cate that the theories on which we have been depend¬ 
ing for guidance do not go to the bottom of the prob¬ 
lems that they profess to elucidate, and that it is in¬ 
cumbent upon the medical profession, the natural and 
much trusted conservators of the public health, to 
institute a most searching inquiry with the view of 
making such expurgations, corrections and amend¬ 
ments as may be found advisable or necessary. It 
goes without saying that in our every attempt to dis¬ 
charge this duty we must bear in mind not only the 
fact that we are dealing with the most precious of all 



INTRODUCTION 


57 


earthly possessions—human life—but the important 
criterion already referred to—namely, that the valid¬ 
ity of a scientific proposition depends, in the last 
analysis, not upon the dictum of any authority, how¬ 
ever eminent; nor upon the facts to which it appeals 
for support, nor upon the number or character of its 
advocates, nor yet upon the length of time that it has 
passed unchallenged, but upon the possession of the 
fundamental attributes— upon its truths; its har¬ 
monies; its logical features; its explanatory capabili¬ 
ties ; the success that attends its practical application; 
the absence or rareness of contradictory occurrences, 
and last, but not least, upon its conclusiveness— that 
is, upon its ability to settle the various questions 
which belong in the province that it aspires to gov¬ 
ern. An example of the troubles entailed by the 
want of this important qualification resides in the 
fact that in putting the Germ Theory into practice 
we set out, it will be remembered, by discarding the 
then existent and long prevalent doctrine that disease 
begins with “lassitude’ 7 —which means lowered 
vitality, and, in consequence of a vast concatena-< 
tion of provoking experiences, we described a per¬ 
fectly complete circle, in that we were forced to real¬ 
ize and admit that the action of infective organisms 
depends upon some pre-existing agent or condition 
which is variously referred to in our literature, as 
the “predisposition,” the “susceptibility,” a “suit¬ 
able soil,” and a “lowered vitality,” this last term 
being characteristic of the entire series and the exact 
equivalent of lassitude . 



58 


INTRODUCTION 


THE DOCTRINAL RENAISANCE. 

This enforced return to the doctrine of the fathers 
in medicine involves three extremely important im¬ 
plications, the first, residing in the term, “Icnvered 
vitality ”; the second, in the term, “suitable soil ”; 
the third, in the fact that these two terms evidently 
refer to the same thing, whatever it may be. The 
term “lowered vitality” plainly implies that the 
causative agent interferes in some way with the proc¬ 
ess on which the maintenance of the vital energies 
depend—namely, nutrition. The term, “ suitable 
soil” implies that the material to which it is applied 
is an organized substance of some sort, since the 
disease-germ is the tertium quid, or third agent, on 
which the decay of unstable organic matter depends, 
producing this effect by bringing oxygen into combi¬ 
nation with the carbon and hydrogen, or perishable, 
elements thereof. 

We are thus brought face to face, as it were, with 
two very important hints; first, that the lowering of 
the vitality and the propagation of infective organ¬ 
isms depend upon one and the same thing, and, sec¬ 
ond, that in our attempts to unravel the mystery in 
which infection is still enshrouded, we must be on the 
lookout for some agent which is capable of interfer¬ 
ing with nutrition and of paving the way for the 
propagation of disease-germs by affording them a 
suitable soil. 

In short, the facts of experience and observa¬ 
tion go to show that the infective disorders depend, 
to say the least, upon two causes—the germ and the 



INTRODUCTION 


59 


predisponent —and that the latter is the greater of 
the tivo 9 since it is a self-evident fact that the title of 
superiority belongs to that agent which is able to 
take possession of the body in advance of the germ 
and reduce the vitality to such an extent that suc¬ 
cessful resistance to germ action is impossible. 

IMPORTANT ADMISSIONS. 

That it has come to be a generally recognized fact 
that the action of pathogenic organisms depends upon 
a pre-existing condition, is a proposition the truth 
of which will hardly be called in question. Never¬ 
theless, it is deemed advisable to submit a few evi¬ 
dences to this effect. In the prosecution of this pur¬ 
pose it will be the proper thing, no doubt, to proceed 
in harmony with the principle that the greater in¬ 
cludes the less, which may be done by confining at¬ 
tention almost entirely to what the most reputable 
authorities have said with regard to the restrictions 
that Nature has imposed upon those germs which are 
concerned in the causation of the most destructive of 
all diseases,—Pulmonary Consumption. For the 
fact that this is the most destructive and intractable 
of all diseases seems at least to indicate that the in¬ 
fection concerned in its causation (the bacillus tuber¬ 
culosis), must be a thing of surpassing virulence, and 
therefore less dependent upon a pre-existing condi¬ 
tion than any other agency of the kind. 

In discussing the causation of pulmonary con¬ 
sumption, Doctor Austin Flint declares that: 

“ Certain local conditions favorable for the multi¬ 
plication of the parasite are not less essential than 



60 


INTRODUCTION 


the presence of the latter. The nature of those local 
conditions which form the soil suited for the cultiva¬ 
tion of the parasite is unknown. Certain conclusions 
deduced from clinical observations will be noted in 
connection with the causation of the disease. These 
unknown conditions constitute a predisposition to 
this disease. This term, “ predisposition, ” in its ap¬ 
plication to pulmonary phthisis, designates what 
has hitherto been expressed by the terms tuberculous 
constitution and diathesis.’’—Flint’s Practice of 
Medicine, Seventh Edition, page 111. By permission 
of the publishers, Lea Brothers & Co., Philadel¬ 
phia, Pa. 

J. Edward Squire, in discussing the causation of 
phthisis, remarks: 

“Seeing how wide-spread consumption is, it 
would appear that the infective particles must be 
almost everywhere present when the population is 
numerous, and that the risk of becoming infected 
must be very general. How then, do so many escape 
the disease? The same question might be asked of 
all the infectious diseases—for scarlet fever, measles 
and other infectious fevers are very frequently with 
us, but all are not at all times equally susceptible. 
And to some extent the same explanation will be 
found to account for the escape of some who are ex¬ 
posed to the infection of these fevers, and the im¬ 
munity of so many from consumption, where phthisis 
is rife.”—Hygienic Prevention of Consumption, 
page 20. 

Sternberg, an authority of the highest rank, testi¬ 
fies to the dependence of the tubercle bacillus upon a 
pre-existing condition by saying: 

“Tuberculosis in man, no doubt results in a large 
proportion of cases from the respiration, by a sus- 




INTRODUCTION 


61 


ceptible individual, of air containing the tubercle 
bacillus in suspension in a dessicated condition.”— 
Sternberg's Manual, page 319, Edition of 1893. By 
permission of the publishers, Wm. Wood & Co., New 
York. 

Dr. A. C. Abbot, in speaking of the tubercle ba¬ 
cillus, says: 

“When inhaled into the lungs, if conditions are 
favorable, multiplication of the bacilli quickly fol¬ 
lows. * * * Tubercular tissues always contain the 
bacilli or their spores and are always capable of re¬ 
producing the disease when introduced into the body 
of a susceptible animal.”—Abbot’s Principles of 
Bacteriology, pages 274, 276, Edition of 1895. By 
permission of the publishers, W. B. Saunders Com¬ 
pany, Philadelphia. 

Prof. Anders, in speaking of the bacillus diph- 
theriae, says: 

“The virulence of its products is modified by 
many individual conditions, the chief among these is 
a healthy and intact condition of the mucous mem¬ 
branes, which greatly reduces the susceptibility to the 
disease. * * * As to the exact conditions under which 
infection occurs, our knowledge, is as yet, incom¬ 
plete. We know definitely the usual point of local 
infection in man, and also that a catarrhal mucosa, 
or an open lesion of a mucous surface invites infec¬ 
tion. It is not certain, however, that even a slight 
lesion of the mucous surface is essential to infection, 
though it is very questionable whether the diph¬ 
theritic germs ever find lodgment in the perfectly 
healthy mucosa.”—Ander’s Practice of Medicine, 
pages 182-3. By permission of the publishers, W. 
B. Saunders Company, Philadelphia. 



62 


INTRODUCTION 


AN IMPORTANT CRITICISM. 

The importance of considering the soil as well as 
the seed upon which disease depends, has been hap¬ 
pily presented by the Editor of the Journal of Amer¬ 
ican Medical Association, and is, in part, as follows: 

“At the present time the discovery of a microbe 
in a disease conforming to the recognized criteria of 
pathogenicity, is too commonly accepted as ending 
discussion as to its treatment—we must keep out the 
germ of infection and the disease is conquered. 
Hence the premature and exaggerated deductions as 
to the importance of isolation, disinfection, etc.,— 
all measures good in themselves and absolutely es¬ 
sential in many infections, but by no means so much 
so or so beneficial in certain others where their all¬ 
importance is at the present time so much agitated. 
We must keep in mind that the soil as well as the 
seed is essential, and that the human organism does 
not in all cases and at all times furnish the same pabu¬ 
lum and foothold for the germs/’—See May Num¬ 
ber, 1903, page 1445. By permission of the Editor. 

Sternberg refers to the difficulties encountered by 
several experimenters in the following terms: 

“The demonstration made by Ogston, Rosenbach, 
Passet, and others, that micrococci are constantly 
present in the pus of acute abscesses, led to the infer¬ 
ence that there can be no pus formation in the absence 
of micro-organisms of this class. But it is now well 
established, by the experiments of Grawitz, Be 
Barry, Scheurlen, Kaufmann, and others, that this 
inference was a mistaken one, and that certain chemi¬ 
cal substances introduced beneath the skin gave rise 
to pus formation quite independently of bacteria. 
Among the substances tested which had given a posi- 



INTRODUCTION 


63 


tive result are nitrate of silver, oil of turpentine, 
strong ammonia, cadaverin, etc. The demonstration 
has also been made by numerous investigators that 
cultures of pus cocci, when sterilized by heat, still 
give rise to pus formation when injected subcutane¬ 
ously. This was first established by Pasteur in 1878, 
who found that sterilized cultures of his ‘miscrobe 
generateur du pus’ induced suppuration as well as 
cultures containing the living microbe. This fact has 
since been confirmed as regards the pus staphylococci 
and various bacilli, by a number of bacteriologists. 
Wyssokowitsch produced abscesses containing ster¬ 
ile pus by injecting subcutaneously agar cultures 
of the anthrax bacillus sterilized by heat. Buchner 
obtained similar results in a series of forty experi¬ 
ments from the injection of sterilized cultures of 
Friedlanders bacillus (“pneumococcus”) and has 
shown that the pus forming property belongs to the 
bacterial cells and not to a soluble chemical substance 
produced by them. When cultures were filtered by 
means of a Chamberlain filter, the clear fluid which 
passed through the porous porcelain was without ef¬ 
fect, while the dead bacteria retained by the filter 
produced asceptic pus infiltration in the subcutaneous 
tissues within forty-eight hours after having been in¬ 
jected. Subsequent experiments gave similar results 
with seventeen different species tested, including 
Staphylococcus pyogenes aureus, Staphylococcus 
cereus flavus, Sarcina aurentiaca, Bacillus prodigi- 
osus, Bacillus Fitzianus, Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus 
coli communis, Bacillus acidi lactici, etc. From the 
experiments made to determine the exact cause of pus 
formation following the injection of sterilized cul¬ 
tures, Buchner arrives at the conclusion that it is due 
to the albuminous contents of the bacterial cells.”— 
Sternberg’s Bacteriology, pages 263-4, Edition of 



64 


INTRODUCTION 


1893. By permission of the publishers, Wm. Wood 
& Co., New York. 

We might go on thus, adding quotation to quota¬ 
tion, until the entire list of authorities of modern 
date, great as this category evidently is, has been 
drawn upon, for there is not so much as a single au¬ 
thor or writer on the theory and practice of medicine 
who has failed to concede, in substance, or otherwise, 
that the germ theory does not fully account for any 
disease that it is supposed to explain, which plainly 
implies that the thing needed is a definite knowledge 
of the agent, whatever it may be, that renders the 
body susceptible. In other words, it has come to be 
a universally conceded fact that the various infec¬ 
tious diseases depend, not alone upon the action of 
their “specific germs” but primarily and undoubtedly 
for the most part upon some unexplained agent which 
is sufficiently powerful to take possession of the body 
in advance of the germs and so lower its vitality or 
resistive capacity that microbic invasion cannot be 
successfully opposed. 

A HALF TRUTH. 

Now, it must be admitted that to know that micro¬ 
organisms are the agents or conveyors of infection 
without knowing what it is that paves the way for 
their action by furnishing them a suitable soil, is but 
to be in possession of nothing more than a half-truth. 
And inasmuch as a half-truth is in effect a falsehood, 
it cannot be deemed a surprising circumstance that 
pneumonia, influenza and other infectious diseases 



INTRODUCTION 


65 


have steadily increased in spite of the extensive war¬ 
fare that has been waged against his majesty, the in¬ 
fective germ, for it is thus made evident that our 
efforts have been confined to the lesser of the two 
causes on which the troubles in question depend. 

A few members of the medical profession have ven¬ 
tured the opinion that the human body itself is the 
soil on which the propagation of infective organisms 
depends, but the great majority of medical observers 
have realized that such is not the case. To this num¬ 
ber belongs Doctor Austin Flint, who affirms that 
* * * “this predisposition does not exist in all 

persons, or at all times in the same person.” The 
fact is, it is very generally known in both lay and 
professional circles that a person may at one time 
be greatly exposed to infection without taking the 
disease and that at another and not far distant date 
he succumbs in consequence of a very slight exposure. 
In view of such experiences and observations as 
these it is impossible to escape the conclusion that the 
soil on which infection depends is not the body itself, 
but something essentially foreign thereto. 

In short, the disappointments attending the prac¬ 
tical application of the Germ Theory are due to the 
fact that it does not come up to the scientific require¬ 
ment of being conclusive in its interpretation of the 
phenomenon of infection. 

Nature has given us a machine—the body—to 
utilize and care for, and has given us the keys to 
the activities thereof in the shape of the facts and 
phenomena expressive of these operations. In life, 



66 


INTRODUCTION 


as in physics and chemistry, every phenomenon de¬ 
pends upon energy—heat, nervous energy and muscu¬ 
lar power—a triad of energies, of which only two— 
animal heat and nervous energy—are known to the 
scientific world, the third and obviously the most 
powerful of the three—muscular power—having es¬ 
caped detection. The current teaching seems at least 
to imply that the motility of the “ primordial animal 
cell” affords a sufficient explanation of the vital ac¬ 
tivities. If so, it is too indefinite to be of any prac¬ 
tical value. If the activities of the white corpuscle 
have anything to do with the activities of the body, we 
need to know what the moving power is, how it sets 
the vital machinery in motion, and the rules that ob¬ 
tain in the development and performance of the same. 
Authorities assert, in substance, that all parts of the 
living organism, the osseous structures, or bony 
framework, not excepted, are constantly undergoing 
oxidation and that the tissues thus destroyed are 
built up again from the food, but they (the authori¬ 
ties) have not shown that there is any need of or any¬ 
thing gained by such a round-about process as that 
would be. In other words, our authorities have at¬ 
tempted to explain nutrition by asserting that the 
food is transformed into the tissues of the body, and 
that these tissues are destroyed in consequence of 
their activity—an explanation which not only fails to 
satisfactorily explain, but involves an undeniably in¬ 
credible proposition. For to affirm that a machine of 
any kind, vital or non-vital, must be consumed, oxi¬ 
dized, or decomposed, in order to do its work is but 



INTRODUCTION 


. 67 


to arouse in the mind of the duly exacting not a mere 
feeling of doubt, but the decidedly antagonistic im¬ 
pression that if this doctrine were true there would 
be at least an occasional example of a complete loss 
of identity. While it is true that those parts of the 
body which are particularly liable to suffer injury or 
destruction—the nails, hair, teeth, epidermis and epi¬ 
thelium—are worn away and reconstructed, it does 
not necessarily follow that all other parts are de¬ 
stroyed and renewed. 

The facts and criticisms now submitted seem at 
least to justify the suspicion that the various doc¬ 
trines on which we have been depending for guidance 
are not as conclusive and dependable as they are gen¬ 
erally supposed to be and that it were the part of wis¬ 
dom to institute an investigation with the view of 
discovering and rectifying any defect that may have 
crept into the same. 

Nature is inexorable in her insistence upon the 
observance of her fundamental statutes and practical 
precepts. To plead ignorance of these laws is as 
futile in the courts of the Universe, as it is in 
tribunals of human origin. 

As before stated, nature has given us the keys to 
her treasure-house of knowledge, but it appears that 
we have not used them in the way that she intended— 
that instead of employing the facts of observation 
and experience in the determination of the unknown 
quantities in the physiological and pathological equa¬ 
tions—the power that sets the vital machinery in 
motion and the agencies that disable and destroy it— 



68 


INTRODUCTION 


we have made the mistake of using the facts as the 
groundwork of a set of theories and of assuming that 
these theories are the laws of life. 

IMPORTANT ADMONITION. 

The reasons now presented together with the ex¬ 
isting situation in matters medical admonish us to 
the effect, as already stated, that, if we would find out 
how the vital energies are lost and how the vital 
mechanism is impaired, as they are in disease, we 
must first find out how the one is obtained and the 
other is preserved, as they are in health. And this 
brings us face to face, as it were, with the real crux 
of all medical history—namely, a want of knowledge 
of the power that sets the vital machinery in motion; 
of the source from which this energy is obtained and 
of the rules on which its development and perform¬ 
ance depend . 

As already observed, in substance, it is incumbent 
upon the medical profession to subject the basic 
theories of our science to an unbiased and most 
searching examination, testing each and every one of 
them in the light not of authority, but of reason and 
established science. In the event this is done, it will 
be found that they are, one and all, open to the fatal 
objection of being inconclusive —that they do not go 
to the bottom of the problems that they profess to 
elucidate—and that they are largely responsible, 
therefore, for the deplorable situation pointed out in 
the following chapter. 

The successful merchant is the one who takes ac- 



INTRODUCTION 


count of stock and makes out a “trial balance’’ at 
short intervals and acts accordingly, righting such 
errors and instituting such measures as the results 
of his investigations may dictate or suggest. Let us 
emulate the example thus set, and in so doing let us 
disarm in advance the dubious, the envious and the 
hypercritical by laying aside all pet theories, all pride 
of individual opinion, all authoritative restraints 
and proceed with the determination to find out at all 
hazards the nature, origin and extent of the trouble 
and to take such action as the amenities and proprie¬ 
ties of the occasion may demand. In other words, let 
us look the existing situation in matters medical 
squarely in the face, determined to unfold, if possible, 
the secrets that are wrapped up in the penumbrations, 
incongruities and shortcomings that we have encoun¬ 
tered. The fundamental postulates of our depart¬ 
ment of science look good, but the question may well 
be raised: Are they as good as they seem to be ? It 
does not necessarily follow that a doctrine that looks 
good, is good. As already stated, in substance, the 
productions of great minds are not of necessity fault¬ 
less. The fact that a doctrine has passed unchal¬ 
lenged for a great space of time does not justify the 
assumption that it is absolutely true and dependable. 
To subject the teachings of great men to a critical 
examination is not a sacrilege, but a duty—is not 
reprehensible, but commendable. For these reasons 
we are in duty bound to subject the doctrines on 
which we have been depending for guidance to a most 
searching interrogation to see whether they are or 



70 


INTRODUCTION 


are not as good as they appear to be. Instead of a 
blind adherence to existing theories and speculations, 
let us act in accordance with the dictates of reason, 
conscience and common sense. 

Says Emerson, the celebrated American Essayist: 

“ Whoso would be a man must be a nonconform¬ 
ist. He who would gather immortal palms must not 
be hindered by the name of goodness, but must ex¬ 
plore if it be goodness. Nothing is at last sacred but 
the integrity of our own mind. Absolve you to your¬ 
self, and you shall have the suffrage of the world.”— 
From Emerson’s Essays, published by Hurst & Co., 
New York. 

A most splendid suggestion, is that, but hard to 
carry into effect. It is among the most difficult tasks 
to absolve ourselves from the bias that the good ap¬ 
pearance of things philosophic and authoritative 
inflict upon us. The power of authority, especially 
when expressed in plausible terms and indorsed by a 
vast multitude of talented men, is almost irresistible. 
Whether we have realized it or not the fact remains, 
that, aside from the inherent abstruseness of the 
questions that confront us at every turn, is the 
scarcely less unfortunate circumstance that we labor 
under a load of long existent beliefs—beliefs which 
we owe to the accidents so to speak of early training; 
to the books that we have perused and the theories 
advanced by preceptors and recognized authorities. 
Our beliefs may be true or false. If true, all will, of 
course, be well. If false, we must of necessity suffer 
both personally and professionally; for it is under 
their influence that we must study, and through them, 



INTRODUCTION 


71 


as a prism, or colored glass, we must view the objects 
of investigation—the facts of health, the phenomena 
of disease and the effects of remedies—,as already 
remarked. 

While laboring under the guidance of genuine 
fundamental knowledge, as in physics, chemistry, 
hydrostatics and mathematics, success is ours to 
enjoy. A similar result is, therefore, to be expected 
of a similarly constituted science of medicine. 

If it be true that the current teaching is in reality 
founded upon the basic principles of the vital domain, 
this fact will be reflected in the general average of the 
results obtained in consequence of their practical ap¬ 
plication,—that is, in the preponderance of those of 
a successful character. Let us, therefore, proceed to 
make out a trial balance, as already suggested. 

It goes without saying that the data for the pro¬ 
posed reckoning are to be found in the facts of ex¬ 
perience and observation and in the vital and mortu¬ 
ary statistics of the period during which the current 
teaching has been regnant. In the following chapter 
will be found a few out of the multitude of facts 
which might be adduced in support of the proposition 
that the balance has appeared upon the wrong side 
of the ledger. A careful study of the facts and figures 
that go to make up this balance will certainly pave the 
way for the appreciation of the various disclosures 
and interpretations that it is the more especial pur¬ 
pose of this work to unfold. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE STEADY INCREASE OF DISEASE AND DEATH. 

The most Appalling Mystery of modern times and its 

Implications, theoretical and practical. 

Those who have kept trace of such matters need 
not be told that the statistical disclosures of the last 
fifty years are to the deplorable, not to say astound¬ 
ing, effect that diseases in general and the Incurable 
and Suddenly Fatal in particular, have been and are 
still increasing at a prodigious and constantly accel¬ 
erating rate, sweeping the best elements of the social 
fabric—the prattling babe, the loving wife, the de¬ 
voted husband, the leaders of the religious, industrial 
and political worlds, and even the hardiest and most 
talented members of the medical profession, into -un¬ 
timely graves. 

That a continuation of the causes now in opera¬ 
tion will eventuate in physical and mental bankruptcy 
if not in the extinction of the human race, is a propo¬ 
sition which finds abundant support in the long-con¬ 
tinued decline of the public health; in the decline of 
the birth-rate; in the increasing numbers and dimen¬ 
sions of eleemosynary institutions; in the marvelous 
growth which has taken place in the number and work 
of dispensaries and hospitals, and in those balance 
sheets of morbid history, the mortuary statistics of 
the civilized world. 

Referring to the statistics of our own country we 
find evidences of the workings of the fell destroyer 

72 


THE INCREASE OF DISEASE 


73 


surpassing in number and importance if not in their 
nature those which have in periods of pestilential visi¬ 
tation, not only depopulated (by death and exodus) 
vast municipalities, but aroused the apprehensions 
and sympathies of the balance of the civilized world— 
a situation which has by virtue of the graduality and 
unobtrusiveness of its growth, failed to attract the 
attention that it so richly deserves. 

STATISTICAL DISCLOSURES. 

According to Dr. J. H. Kellogg, a thinker and 
writer of high repute, our statistics involve the as¬ 
tounding disclosure that: 

“ Idiocy has increased 300 per cent, in fifty 
years; 

“ Insanity has increased 300 per cent, in fifty 

YEARS; 

“ Epilepsy has increased 300 per cent, in fifty 

YEARS; 

“ Cancer has increased 305 per cent, in fifty 

YEARS; 

“ Bright's disease has increased 527 per cent, in 

FIFTY YEARS; 

“ Diabetes has increased 1459 per cent, in fifty 
years/ - ' —From Good Health, Dec., 1906, by permis¬ 
sion of the publishers. 

Professor Fisher, of Yale University, estimates 
that Consumption is destroying 138,000 of our people 
per annum, and that the attending expense is the 
practically inconceivable sum of $1,400,000,000. 
Some writers of the optimistic order have contended 
that this disease is receding; but this is authorita¬ 
tively controverted in the “Circular” of the Illinois 



74 


THE INCREASE OF DISEASE 


State Board of Health for 1905, which declares that: 
“ While other diseases have yielded to the progress 
of science and the greater knowledge of sanitation, 
Consumption claims its increasing numbers of vic¬ 
tims with each succeeding year. In the State of Illi¬ 
nois in 1904, the deaths from Consumption exceeded 
those of 1903 by over 200. * * *” Further on 

this circular asserts, capitals included, that: “The 
DEATH RATE FROM CONSUMPTION IN ILLINOIS is not 
greater, however, than in other states.” 

Statistics have also shown that a similar increase 
has occurred, not only in heart disease, paralysis, 

APOPLEXY, CATARRH, RHEUMATISM, LOCOMOTOR ATAXIA, 

and other non-infectious disorders, but in the Infec¬ 
tious, as well, especially, Influenza, or La Grippe, and 
Pneumonia. The latter has increased to such an ex¬ 
tent in the great cities that it has taken the second 
place in the mortuary lists thereof . 

In keeping with the foregoing statement, that 
diseases are increasing at a constantly accel¬ 
erating rate, is the affirmation recently made 
by medical writers that Cancer has increased 
25 per cent, in the last ten years; that Ap¬ 
pendicitis has increased over one hundred per cent, 
in the last two years, and that digestive troubles have 
advanced to a still greater extent. The last named 
item is particularly impressive, for it shows that some 
agent unknown to science is centering its attention 
upon and leveling its batteries, so to speak, against 
the stomach, which is the citadel of the vital energies 
—assaulting that particular part of the human an- 



THE INCREASE OP DISEASE 


75 


atomv upon whose successful performance depends 
all the powers and possibilities of life, physical, 
nervous and thermal. 

To these saddening facts must be added the 
scarcely less deplorable circumstance that between 
one-third and one-half of all that are born of woman 
perish before the tender age of five years is reached; 
that 23 per cent, of the mothers of our day and age 
are unable to nurse at the breast their offspring; that 
a large percentage of couples are childless; that im- 
potency and sterility are not only alarmingly preva¬ 
lent, but steadily increasing, and in the very period 
of life when procreation has heretofore been and 
ought still to be at the very zenith of its activity— 
namely, between the twenty-first and the thirty-fifth 
years of human life. 

NERVOUS AND MENTAL DISORDERS. 

It has also been found that the various nervous 
disorders have increased to an alarming extent. In 
an article published in the Feb. 1, 1908, number of 
the Journal of the American Medical Association Dr. 
John Punton, Professor of Nervous and Mental Dis¬ 
eases, University Medical College, Kansas City, Mo., 
starts out with the following remarkably significant 
paragraph: 

4 ‘ The alarming mortality and widespread preva¬ 
lence of nervous and mental disorders in recent years 
is sufficient to attract the attention of every intelli¬ 
gent citizen. At first sight it scarcely seems possible 
that during four years, viz., from 1900 to 1904, 
diseases of the nervous system were responsible for 



76 


THE INCREASE OF DISEASE 


more deaths than any other class of ailments. A 
bulletin on health statistics has just been issued by 
the United States’ Census Bureau which claims that 
no less than 302,876 persons died from some nervous 
disorder during this period. This large number of 
deaths is even greater than those who died from more 
common fatal tendencies of tuberculosis, typhoid 
fever, malaria, infectious fever, alcoholism, cancer, 
pneumonia and even the epidemics of yellow fever. 
Hence, nervous diseases take precedence of all other 
classes of diseases as a death producer or destroying 
agent.”—By permission of the Editor. 

The country in which we live, “the land of the 
free and the home of the brave,” with its fertile 
plains, its boundless opportunities, its splendid edu¬ 
cational enterprises, its vast and varied climatic ad¬ 
vantages and its lavish expenditures in behalf of the 
public health, may be said to have afforded a most 
favorable opportunity for putting the current teach¬ 
ing regarding the maintenance of health and the pre¬ 
vention of disease into practice. It goes without 
saying that neither time nor expense has been spared 
in the prosecution of the work, and yet we are con¬ 
fronted by the fact that we have a standing army of 
160,000 Epileptics; and a fearful contingent of Neu¬ 
rasthenics, comprehending as stated in the foregoing 
quotation the destruction of nearly 303,000 human 
lives in the brief space of four years. And worse still 
is the fact already referred to, that Pneumonia, an 
acute disease of painful and dangerous import and 
the foremost forerunner of the great white plague, 
has increased in the great cities until it has taken the 
second place in the mortuary lists thereof . 



THE INCREASE OF DISEASE 


77 


For the sake of emphasizing a matter of surpass¬ 
ing practical significance attention is again called to 
the advance that the worst forms of disease have made 
in the last fifty years—that Idiocy, Insanity and Epi¬ 
lepsy have increased three hundred per cent.; that 
Cancer has increased three-hundred-and-five per 
cent.; that Bright’s disease has increased five-hun¬ 
dred- and-twenty-seven per cent.; that Diabetes Mel- 
litus has increased to the enormous extent of one- 

THOUSAND-FOUR-HUNDRED-AND-FIFTY-NINE per Cent, 
and that a similar if not greater advance has been 
made by Apoplexy, Paralysis, Heart disease, Rheu¬ 
matic affections, Catarrhal disorders, Tabes Dorsalis 
(Locomotor Ataxia), Appendicitis, Cerebro-spinal 
meningitis, together with many other morbid condi¬ 
tions which can only be met by resorting to surgical 
interference. 

THE SLAUGHTER OF THE INNOCENTS. 

But the most pathetic feature of the fearful 
destruction that is going on in all civilized lands is the 
slaughter of the “ innocents” —the havoc that is be¬ 
ing made in the realms of babyhood and early child¬ 
hood, by diseases which were in former times 
confined almost entirely to the periods of adoles¬ 
cence, middle life and old age, the more important 
being, paralysis, diabetes, Bright’s disease, myxe¬ 
dema, gastritis, spasms, convulsions, diarrhea, dys¬ 
entery and sudden deaths from apparently indeter¬ 
minable disorders. 

Not very long ago one of our leading Medical 
Journals published in a single issue several ably writ- 



78 


THE INCREASE OF DISEASE 


ten articles, which may be regarded in the aggregate 
as a first-class symposium on the subjects of infantile 
diabetes and Bright’s disease. Their revelations were 
to the effect that these diseases are fearfully preva¬ 
lent in child life, that they are becoming more and 
more prevalent, and that the reasons why are not 
known to the medical profession. 

Again, in times past cretinism or myxedema was 
confined, if my memory has not betrayed me, to per¬ 
sons in middle or advanced life, but it has recently 
been found that it prevails to a considerable extent 
in babyhood. Reference is made in particular to the 
cases reported by Dr. James Frederick Clarke, of 
Fairfield, Iowa. In connection with four half-tone 
engravings he makes the following statement: 

4 1 The case here presented is the fourth of sporadic 
cretinism brought to my attention in this part of 
Iowa. Such a number found in a limited territory 
inclines me to the belief that the condition is much 
more frequent in the United States than is commonly 
supposed.”—Journal Am. Med. Assn., August, 1907, 
by permission of the publishers. 

After giving 18 months as the age of his little 
patient and referring to the treatment and the at¬ 
tending cure, Dr. Clarke closed the report, as medical 
writers so frequently do, without attempting to ac¬ 
count for either the disease itself or the fact that it 
occurred at such an early period of life. 

And now Dr. M. Allen Starr, Professor of Neu¬ 
rology, Columbia University, comes forward with the 
still more surprising statement that an epidemic of 
infantile paralysis of vast proportions occurred last 



THE INCREASE OF DISEASE 


79 


year in our great commercial metropolis and sur¬ 
rounding country. Under the heading “ Epidemic 
Infantile Paralysis’’ Dr. Starr starts out with the 
following paragraph: 

“ During the summer of 1907 an epidemic of in¬ 
fantile paralysis occurred in New York City and 
its vicinity. The number of cases (probably over 
2,000) was so many, the extent of the disease in the 
city and along Long Island Sound into Connecticut 
and up the Hudson Diver as far as Ossining was so 
rapid, the severity of the cases was so intense and 
deaths from the disease so frequent, that the epidemic 
excited a great amount of interest both among the 
laity and the profession. It seems wise, therefore, to 
put on record some special account of this epidemic, 
to call attention to particular clinical features that 
were presented, to trace the course of the cases as far 
as possible, and also to bring together an account of 
other epidemics that have occurred in the past, inas¬ 
much as a large number of records have now accu¬ 
mulated concerning the prevalence of this disease in 
epidemic form.”—From Journal of the American 
Med. Assn, for July 11, 1908, by permission of the 
Publishers. 

On page 114 Dr. Starr remarks that “A careful 
search through literature has shown that epidemics 
of infantile paralysis are more common than has 
been supposed.” 

More than seven columns of quotations from au¬ 
thorities are then given to show how prevalent the 
disease has come to be; a long discussion is appended 
thereto, and yet no explanation is given save the ob¬ 
viously insufficient fact of referring the disease to 
some other unexplained morbid process. In view of 



80 


THE INCREASE OF DISEASE 


this unfortunate trend in the life history of budding 
humanity and of the well-known fact that both ster¬ 
ility and impotency have become astonishingly preva¬ 
lent, we are bound to realize and admit that we are 
confronted by something which is far worse in every 
essential particular than what is termed “race sui¬ 
cide,’ ’ as unutterably bad as this certainly is. 


APPALLING INCREASE OF HEART DISEASE. 

In the January 4, 1908, number of that excellent 
periodical, the Journal of the American Medical As¬ 
sociation, we find an Editorial regarding the increase 
of heart disease, the opening sentence of which is as 
follows: 

“During the year just ended heart disease is re¬ 
ported to have caused many more deaths than in 1907 
—in Chicago and Boston 13 per cent, more, in New 
York 29, in Detroit 26, in Philadelphia 5, etc.”—By 
permission of the Editor. 

It thus appears that the enormous destruction 
effected the previous year by this dread malady be¬ 
came vastly more enormous in the very brief space of 
one year. 

That the medical profession is suffering as 
greatly, practically speaking, from the effects of 
disease as the general public, is a proposition which 
finds support in the editorial references to the statis¬ 
tics thereunto appertaining, which appear annually 
in the above named Journal. Under date of Januarv 
5, 1907, is the following: 



THE INCREASE OF DISEASE 


81 


“DEATHS OF THE YEAR.” 

“ During 1906, The Journal noted the deaths of 
2,150 physicians in the United States and Canada, a 
death rate of 17.2 per thousand. This death rate does 
not differ materially from the estimated death rates 
of former years. The ages of the decedents varied 
from 22 to 103, the average being 58 years and 4 
months, and the extremes of duration of practice were 
from 3 days after graduation to 71 years, the average 
being 22 years and 10 months. The American Medi¬ 
cal Association lost 232 members during the year, or 
10.8 per cent, of the total mortality. Heart disease, 
cerebral hemorrhage, violence, nephritis and pneu¬ 
monia, in the order named headed the list of death 
causes. 

“In 15.35 per cent, of the deaths, the age could 
not be ascertained; in 35.95 per cent, the cause of 
death was not given or was not clear, and in 4.75 per 
cent, the duration of practice was not obtained. 

“Death Causes .—On account of lay reports and 
lack of detail, the verification of causes of death is 
difficult. Heart diseases, which include not only 
valvular lesions, but angina pectoris, endocarditis, 
myocarditis, dilatation and an uncertain proportion 
of sudden deaths set down as 4 heart failure/ caused 
262 deaths. Cerebral hemorrhage, which also includes 
certain sudden deaths, and ‘ paralysis/ has a record 
of 182 deaths. Nephritis, which includes 4 kidney 
disease’ and uremia, is said to have caused 135 deaths. 
Pneumonia caused 121 deaths ; tuberculosis, 99 ; senile 
debility, 59; cancer, 48; typhoid fever, 38; septicemia, 
29; appendicitis, 26; operations, nature not stated, 
20; gastritis and meningitis, each, 19, and diabetes, 
16.”—By permission of the Editor. 

Be it carefully noted in passing that the death 



H2 


Til 10 JNCItlflAHIfl OF DIHICAHIC 


rate named in thin editorial—17.2—in an great if not 
a trifle greater than that which obtains in “lay” 
circles. 

In the same Journal under date of Jan. 4th, 1008, 
the mortality suffered by the profession the previous 
year is referred to in the following terms: 

“deaths of physicians in 1907.“ 

“During 1907 the deaths of 2,013 physicians in 
the United States and Canada were noted in The 
Journal, equivalent to an annual death rate per 
1,000 of 16.1, based on an estimate of 125,000 practi¬ 
tioners. This death rate does not differ materially 
from those of the previous five; years, which were, 
respectively, 1906, 17.2; 1905,16.36; 1904, 17.14; 1903, 
13.73; and 1902, 14.74. The age at death varied from 
21 to 97 years, the average being 58 years, 11 months 
and 18 days. The number of years of practice of the 
decedents varied from the first year of practice to 
the seventieth, with an average of 30 years, 4 months 
and 21 days. About 11 per cent, of those who died 
were members of the American Medical Association. 
Chiefly among the causes of deaths were heart disease, 
cerebral hemorrhage, pneumonia and violence, in the 
above order. 

“Causes of Death.—During 1907,190 deaths were 
attributed to general infectious, malignant and nutri¬ 
tional diseases and tuberculosis; 225 to discuses of the 
nervous system; 107 to diseases of the digestive sys¬ 
tem; 213 to diseases of the circulatory system; 18L to 
diseases of the respiratory system; 140 to diseases of 
the genitourinary system; 83 to miscellaneous dis¬ 
eases, and MI to violence. Chief among the assigned 
causes of death were heart disease, 234; cerebral 
hemorrhage, 184; pneumonia, 147; nephritis, 120; 


Tine INCMflASM Oir 01H CASK, 


tuberculosis, 00; senile Mobility, 50; malignant dis¬ 
ease, 42; typhoid fever, 22; appendicitis, 21; 
cerriia, 20; diabetes, 1H; gastritis, 12; and influenza, 
11. Two deaths cacb ant reported from diphtheria* 
seariot fever arid tetanus.” Page 42.- My perrnis- 
nion of the Fid i tor of the Journal of the A. M. A. 

That the rriedieal practitioners of all ages* those 
of the present not exeepted, have been destitute of 
any information which may justly be regarded as 
“rational medicine,” or as “scientific medicine,” and 
that as a result they have suffered in common with 
I heir patrons, is a proposition the truth of which is 
evinced in the following quotation: 

“At the Philadelphia County Medical Society Dr. 
Curtin recently presented a study of some diseases of 
physicians which we, find quite, interesting. Angina 
pectoris he terms the doctor's disease. H right’s 
disease is not common among physicians, although 
temporary albuminuria is often found after pro 
longed strain. Nervous diseases are very common. 
The automobile is said to have added greatly to the 
nervous strain. The mortality-rate of physicians is 
very high; their average life-term has been variously 
computed at 4b to 24 years; even the latter ago scorns 
much too young. 

“The clergy are twice more likely to attain the 
age of 55 than the physician. Many physicians die 
of the diseases in which they have done, a good deal of 
work. Laennee was a profound student of tubercu¬ 
losis and died a consumptive. Dancisi and Corvisart 
studied and died of heart disease. Prodic died of 
cancer, Duptiytreri of empyema; lie refused opera¬ 
tion, saying lie, would rather raid his life through 
Cod’s hand than through that of a surgeon. 


84 


THE INCREASE OF DISEASE 


“ Mikulicz, who did such great work in gastric 
cancer, died of that disease. Fowler of Brooklyn 
studied and wrote on appendicitis and died of it. 
Lazier died of yellow-fever. Guillotin perished under 
the machine to which he gave his name. 

“ Aortic aneurism and cardiac degeneration killed 
many medical men, among them Chambers, Bright 
and Liton. Neurasthenia, alcoholism and the drug 
habits are a triad which afflict our profession to no 
slight degree. Anstie, who wrote so luminous a book 
on neuralgia, died of neuralgia of the heart. ’ ’—From 
the American Journal of Clinical Medicine, July, 
1908. The Clinic Publishing Co., Bavenswood Sta¬ 
tion, Chicago. 

Dr. John Y. Shoemaker, in an article contributed 
to the lay press, entitled “Why our lives are grow¬ 
ing shorter/’ testifies as follows: 

“In view of all that has been said about the fall 
in the death rate, it seems strange to realize that we 
are not living so long as our grandfathers and grand¬ 
mothers did. More babies live to grow up nowadays 
than formerly, but people in later life die faster than 
they used. Once arrived at adult age, the average 
man or woman has fewer years of survival to expect, 
since their physical vigor and vitality are less able to 
throw off disease than would have been the case half 
a century ago. 

“This seems, on the face of it, so surprising a 
statement that, in order to be accepted, it should be 
backed up by data authentic and indisputable. Such 
data are furnished by the figures of the insurance 
companies (which all agree on the point), but it is 
easier to refer to the government census reports, 
which tell the tale in simple and convincing fashion. 
Not only are people living less long than they did half 




THE INCREASE OF DISEASE 


85 


a century ago, but the decrease in longevity is pro¬ 
gressing. Even during the last fifteen years the death 
rate among all persons over fifty-five years of age of 
both sexes has risen very considerably. 

“In Part I of the third volume of the United 
States Census for 1900 will be found a tabulated 
statement which shows in a very striking way the rise 
in the death rate during the decade from 1890 to 
1900 for all ages from sixty up. The figures given 
are now six years old, and so I have brought them up 
to date with the help of fresh information from 
Washington—a matter of no little importance, inas¬ 
much as the increase has been marked ever since 1900. 
Thus corrected for accuracy, the reckoning shows that 
since 1890 there has been this increase in the death 
rate for the entire United States: 

“For people of ages from sixty to sixty-four, 
seven per cent. 

“For people of ages from sixty-five to sixty-nine, 
six and one-half per cent. 

“For people of ages from seventy to seventy-four, 
sixteen and one-half per cent. 

“For people of ages from seventy-five to seventy- 
nine, seven per cent. 

“For people of ages from eighty to eighty-four, 
fifteen per cent. 

“For people of ages from eighty-five to eighty- 
nine, twelve per cent. 

“For people of ages from ninety to ninety-four, 
thirty and one-half per cent. 

“For people of ages from ninety-five and up, 
twenty and one-half per cent. 

“These figures tell the story more clearly than the 
most eloquent discourse on the subject. They show 
that, notwithstanding improved medical knowledge 
and the benefits of modern sanitation, we are dying 



86 


THE INCREASE OF DISEASE 


earlier than our grandparents did. The reason why 
offers a topic for a considerable discussion, and is not 
to be summed up in a word, but one may discover it 
without much difficulty in the more complex and luxu¬ 
rious life that we lead. The lives of our forebears 
were comparatively simple, and their constitutions, 
unweakened by the luxury and intense nervous strain 
of an existence like that of to-day, were stronger than 
ours and better able to withstand the approaches of 
disease. 

“ Plenty of proof of this fact may be found in the 
vital statistics of our population, especially in the 
cities, the figures showing that, while the death rate 
from diseases common to children has enormously 
diminished within the last few years, the mortality 
from maladies more properly belonging to later life, 
such as heart disease, apoplexy, cancer and ailments 
of the liver and kidneys, has arisen to an alarming 
extent. Nay, more, it is still going up, and seems 
likely to continue to increase. 

“The average baby born to-day has a better 
chance of reaching five years of age by fifty per cent, 
than would have been the case half a century ago. Its 
prospect of escaping the diseases of childhood and 
growing up is vastly improved as compared with 
earlier days. 

“Now, it is very desirable to save the babies, and 
one of the greatest triumphs of our new civilization 
is the successful rearing of three human infants for 
every two that survived half a century ago. But it 
is undeniable that the race as a whole suffers by the 
change, inasmuch as the weaklings, instead of being 
weeded out, are thus enabled to grow up. These 
weaklings, not only propagate other weaklings, but, 
by reason of their inferior vigor of constitution com¬ 
monly fail to reach old age. In this fact, doubtless, 




THE INCREASE OF DISEASE 


87 


is found one cause of the rise in the death rate in later 
life. 

“ Nothing surely could well be more strange than 
the spectacle presented to our view of a great and in¬ 
creasing acceleration of the sweep of the dread scythe 
among people beyond middle age, while multitudes of 
children are constantly escaping who must formerly 
have succumbed. In both cases, too, it is our ad¬ 
vanced and perfected civilization that furnishes the 
cause, rescuing the young but mowing down the old. 
So far, indeed, does the harm neutralize the good 
that, notwithstanding all the achievements of modern 
hygiene and medical discovery, it is doubtful whether 
the average prospective lifetime of all is much greater 
than was the case for those living fifty years ago. ” 

After bringing forward several substantial, 
though not entirely sufficient reasons, if I may be al¬ 
lowed to decide, Dr. Shoemaker concludes his paper 
with the following paragraph: 

“It may be said in conclusion that the fact, shown 
by the census figures of 1900, that people in rural 
districts live longer than residents of the cities, af¬ 
fords rather a striking illustration of the influence 
of the complex existence upon longevity. If we are 
“dying at the top,” as seems to be the case, the mis¬ 
fortune is unquestionably attributable to inherent 
defects in the civilization of which we are proud. We 
have more amusements, travel faster, are more dain¬ 
tily fed, wear finer clothes, and are surrounded by 
more comfort and luxury than any generation that 
has preceded us; but we pay for all these things lit¬ 
erally with our lives, which, as if by the working out 
of some inexorable law of compensation, have been 
considerably shortened already, and seemingly show 
a tendency to become progressively shorter and 



88 


THE INCREASE OF DISEASE 


shorter still.”—The Reader, by permission of the 
publishers and owners of the copyright, The Bobbs- 
Merrill Company, Indianapolis, Ind. 

I might go on thus, adding fact to fact and quota¬ 
tion to quotation until a volume of considerable 
proportions has been compiled in support of the prop¬ 
osition, that we are confronted by the humiliating 
and alarming circumstance that those of us even who 
are best acquainted with the existing theories of 
health and disease are for some unexplained reason 
not only falling short in our efforts to rescue the 
perishing, but perishing along with the perishing, 
destroyed by the same disorders that are destroying 
the general public and at practically the same rate, 
the statistics of the period being the criterion. 

FAITHFUL, BUT FRUITLESS EFFORTS. 

And strange to say, this appalling decline of 
health and loss of life has happened in the very face 
of the perfectly evident fact that the people in gen¬ 
eral and the medical profession in particular have 
been remarkably faithful in the observance of those 
doctrines which are regarded as the laws of life and 
health. Never before in the world’s history has there 
been so much attention paid to matters of health— 
to cleanliness, exercise, diet, rest and recreation. 
The prevention of disease and the building-up of the 
vital energies and structures have been the aims, par 
excellence, of the period. The attempt to solve the 
riddle involved in the decline of the public health has 
been world-wide and ably conducted. The search for 



THE INCREASE OF DISEASE 


89 


remedies for the ills that flesh has fallen heir to has 
been prosecuted by men of incontestible ability and 
on an extensive scale. Numerous organizations, pro¬ 
fessional and non-professional, have been formed 
with the view of promoting the public health and of 
unraveling the mysteries involved in the causation 
and steady increase of disease. The ablest investiga¬ 
tors of the world’s history have labored long and 
strenuously in the attempt to determine the cause or 
causes on which this mysterious decline of human life 
and health depends, and yet it does not appear that 
they have succeeded to any very appreciable extent. 
The facts that these inquirers have brought out and 
recorded seem, at least, to indicate that the more they 
investigated, the more they found to investigate. For 
it is an evident fact that not so much as a single ques¬ 
tion has been conclusively settled. It may also be said 
that a vast multitude of remedies and modes of man¬ 
agement have been devised with the view of prevent¬ 
ing and remedying the ills that flesh has fallen heir 
to, and yet it must be admitted that the work of 
destruction proceeds with unabated severity—a fact 
of unmistakable as well as appalling significance. 

For the greater part of a century it has been gen¬ 
erally believed, as already stated, that the basic the¬ 
ories of our science are essentially correct, and yet 
the outcome of their practical application, as recorded 
in the annals of experience and observation in gen¬ 
eral and in the vital and mortuary statistics of the last 
half century in particular, is so eminently unsatis¬ 
factory that we are bound to realize and admit that 



90 


THE INCREASE OF DISEASE 


there is good reason for the conclusion that these 
doctrines are far, very far, from being as sound and 
dependable as we had been led to suppose, and that 
there is much reason for the fact that countless thou¬ 
sands of intelligent people have drifted away from 
us and under the influence of our antagonists in gen¬ 
eral and the empirical opportunists in particular— 
people who recognized the psychological moment and 
lost no time in making the attempt to widen the 
breach and secure for themselves a large following 
and all the honors and emoluments that the rising tide 
of dissatisfaction and loss of confidence naturally 
implies. 

The truth is, and we might as well admit it, the 
current teaching has been weighed in the balance and 
found wanting and that we are facing a far greater 
crisis than that which existed at the time the present 
system was adopted. 

| That those who have attained great eminence in 
their profession and are in position, therefore, to 
view the existing situation in its true perspective have 
realized that there is great need of a change of some 
sort, is a proposition which finds support in the fol¬ 
lowing extracts from authorities, domestic and 
foreign: 

“the genesis of carcinoma.” 

“Professor Ribbert, of the University of Bonn, 
* * * observes that the investigations referring to 
the origin of cancer do not at present emphasize 
enough the importance of observations made in the 
human body. Such investigations should aim at a 




THE INCREASE OF DISEASE 


91 


solution of the origin of the changes in the epithelial 
cells. Why are these cells separated from their nor¬ 
mal relation to the surrounding tissue and thus, 
apart from the matter of nutrition, made entirely 
independent bodies ? 

“The author tries to solve this problem. His ex¬ 
periments lead him to state that cancer formation is 
preceded by a prodromal period during which a 
greatly increased formation of epithelial cells takes 
place, together with a change of the cells of the con¬ 
nective tissue or with the production of a new layer 
of granulation cells situated beneath the epithelium. 
This prodromal state may originate in a circum¬ 
scribed embryological disturbance or in an inflamma¬ 
tion in the layer of epithelial cells. Epithelium and 
connective tissue are no longer in their proper, nor¬ 
mal, physiological relation with each other or with 
their surrounding tissues. During this time the 
carcinoma is formed by spores which the epithelium 
sends into the connective tissue which reacts to this 
invasion in a manner similar to that observed during 
the formation of glandular tissue. These spores are 
sent out by an abnormal epithelium, they are atypical 
and have no functional connection with an also ab¬ 
normal connective tissue, they, therefore, find no 
obstructing limit to their growth. During the de¬ 
velopmental state the cancer grows independently, 
becomes more and more emancipated from the other 
cells of the body, and acts as a foreign element, as a 
parasite. The downward growth of the epithelium 
is not the only important characteristic of cancer, 
but the suppression of the physiological combina¬ 
tion with the connective tissue, which suppression 
produces isolation from the physiological relation to 
other cells and leads to an adaptation of the epithe¬ 
lial cells to a new condition of existence, is even of 



92 


THE INCREASE OF DISEASE 


greater significance.”—From The New York Med- 
ical Journal, July 6, 1907, pages 31-2, by the cour- 
tesy of the publishers. 

“the cancer problem.” 

“Cancer is recognized as the second great scourge 
of civilized man after tuberculosis, if indeed it is 
not the chief and worst of the ills of human flesh. 
Its terrible prevalence is shown by the facts that 
every eighth woman who has passed the age of 
thirty-five years is doomed to perish from this dis¬ 
ease, and that malignant growths are found in one 
of every twelve hospital autopsies. Tuberculosis, 
there is every reason to hope, is on the road to extinc¬ 
tion, though the way is still long before that goal 
will he reached; its cause is known—at least in a 
general way, although the exact mode of invasion is 
not yet absolutely determined, its prevention is 
almost within reach, and it is, if taken in time, cur¬ 
able. But cancer remains a mystery in its causation, 
and its prevention and definite cures are as yet ob¬ 
tainable only by mutilation, and even then in only a 
small proportion of cases. This is not because "the 
study of the disease is neglected, for there is no 
physical ill that is the subject of more earnest study 
by skilled investigators all over the world than this, 
but none that has as yet rewarded its students less. 
That the day will come, however, when cancer shall 
be conquered no one can doubt who believes in the 
final success of human endeavor, and that this day is 
even now dawning is the hope aroused by the inspir¬ 
ing address delivered by Dr. Crile of Cleveland, be¬ 
fore the American Medical Association at the annual 
session in Chicago this week. 

“Until the cause or causes of malignant growths, 
both sarcoma and carcinoma, shall have been dis- 




THE INCREASE OF DISEASE 


93 


covered the treatment must remain surgical, which, 
even though occasionally successful, is painfully un¬ 
certain and only accidentally curative, since it only 
removes the local manifestation of the disease, and 
does not alter the constitutional defect, upon which 
the possibility of such growth depends. It is like the 
accidental deflection of a bullet by the button of a 
soldier’s coat or the watch or wallet in his pocket; 
the lucky chance saves him from death by that partic¬ 
ular bullet, but offers only a superstitious hope of im¬ 
munity from a second missile. * * * ”—From the 
Medical Record of New York, June 6th, 1908, page 
944, by the courtesy of the publishers. 

UNWARRANTED OPTIMISM REGARDING THE TUBERCULAR 
SITUATION. 

“Too great optimism in regard to tuberculosis is 
neither warranted nor wise . Noteworthy as the 
progress in diagnosis and treatment has been, a 
study of actual statistics shows that the disease still 
goes on collecting its deadly toll of mankind. In 
New York state in 1907, of the total deaths, 147,442, 
tuberculosis of the lungs was responsible for 14,406. 
This w T as 379 more than in 1906 and 802 more than 
the average for the previous five years! In Novem¬ 
ber, 1908, there were 1,101 deaths from tuberculosis, 
31 more than for the same month in 1907 and six 
more than the five years average! These statistics 
are not conclusive, for they do not supply details of 
collateral significance, but they do show beyond all 
doubt that tuberculosis is as great a problem today 
as ever. Statements that the disease has been con¬ 
quered or that it will totally disappear in fifteen 
years, are little short of criminal. Indeed, the opti¬ 
mistic attitude has been sadly overworked and an 




94 


THE INCREASE OF DISEASE 


infinite amount of harm in the further struggle with 
the disease will surely he done unless the truth of the 
situation is straightway broadly disseminated. 
* * * >>—p rom American Medicine, March, 1909, 
by the courtesy of the American Medical Publishing 
Co., Burlington, Vt. 

“the duty of the medical profession in the pre¬ 
vention OF NATIONAL DETERIORATION 

The British Medical Journal, May 1, 1909, opens 
with a contribution headed as above from the pen of 
no less a personage than the eminent Dr. William 
Coates, C. B., in which reference is made to the diffi¬ 
culty that the British Government has experienced 
in finding men (“boys” as this writer puts it) who 
were fit for military service. In the first paragraph 
of his thesis Dr. Coates makes the essentially as¬ 
tounding statement that: 

“On an average 5,000 boys (meaning men) are 
needed annually; to get these 35,000 are rejected.” 

It is thus seen that the greatest empire of the pres¬ 
ent time is for some unexplained reason confronted 
by the essentially alarming circumstance that out of 
every eight applicants for enlistment in the army 
only one can be found who is physically qualified. 

This eminent authority winds up his appeal in the 
following terms: 

“The vital question remains: Can we as a pro¬ 
fession take concerted practical steps to stem decay 
among our fellow countrymen on the one hand and 
to foster sound racial development on the other? 

“While sociologists discuss, the canker grows. 
While medicine works some triumphs, deterioration 
is spreading far and wide. 




THE INCREASE OF DISEASE 


95 


“Must degeneration necessarily increase? Is our 
race so exhausted by the excitement and overstrain 
of the last few generations that she cannot recover? 
No; she can and will do so, as soon as the enlighten¬ 
ment of every class is seriously undertaken. 

“A lofty estimate of family life must be restored 
as a foundation for the re-establishment of our na¬ 
tional life and strength. 

“In such an effort our part should be no ignoble 
one. The issue of a battle depends not alone on the 
intelligence of the commander, but to some extent 
upon the weapons he employs. In the great cam¬ 
paign against decay the profession of medicine 
should be one of the most formidable weapons. Her 
members have unequalled privileges. They pene¬ 
trate the closed door; they are the recipients of the 
secrets of many a forlorn and stricken heart. Their 
voices find thoughtful listeners, not only in the coun¬ 
cils of the wise, but among those whose perplexed and 
troubled minds would be deaf to any other guidance. 

“Do we shrink from the task, because we are not 
invited to undertake it, because the public do not 
realize the danger, because the exigencies of life are 
such that we have neither leisure nor means to fight 
in the battle; or are we afraid? I think not. Once 
convinced that the work must be done, our profession 
will be true to her traditions and resolutely wage 
war against ignorance and vice, giving no thought 
to public estimate or gain. Nay, her members will, 
with inexhaustible faith in the power to right much 
that is wrong, join heartily with those already in the 
field, those who have thrown their influence and their 
service into the scales, so that by the weight of com¬ 
bined opinion and strenuous effort the balance will 
be found on the side of such judicious thought and 
fearless action as shall eventually bring about a 



96 


THE INCREASE OF DISEASE 


greater and more lasting strength in our national 
life, health and habits. 

“Maj r I sum up my simple reflections in a sen¬ 
tence ? He does a great deed who heals the sick; but 
the watchful physician who inculcates sound habits 
amongst a people performs a nobler task.” 

In the New York Medical Journal (April 10,1909) 
is a very interesting Editorial, the first and last para¬ 
graphs of which are quoted below: 

“the ordinary cold.” 

“It might be well for some of our bacteriologists 
to concentrate their attention for a time on the plain, 
every day ‘cold.’ Coryza, while a trivial disease, 
produces, in the aggregate, a vast amount of inca¬ 
pacity. It is almost the only disease which occurs 
frequently, it affects some persons to such a degree 
as to produce more or less incapacity for a good share 
of the winter and spring, very few are immune, and 
there is no season in which it does not occur to some 
extent * * * 

“Pulmonary consumption often appears to have 
begun with a cold. Is this history, which we so fre¬ 
quently obtain, merely coincidental, or is the cold 
usually favorable to the effective lodgment of the 
bacilli ? Is the cold an initial tuberculous lesion ? It 
may be that a serious attempt to solve these problems 
will show that they have been very incorrectly stated 
—in other words, that various fundamental beliefs 
are fallacious. But the importance of the general 
problem can scarcely be exaggerated. There can be 
no question that a frequent and usually frequently 
repeated inflammation, whether strictly infectious 
or not, undermines the general health and predis¬ 
poses to various serious disorders. Moreover, an or- 



THE INCREASE OF DISEASE 


97 


dinary cold is often the last straw in overturning 
the balance of resistance in the aged and in persons 
with widely different diseases, some not necessarily 
fatal, others at least admitting of being long de¬ 
layed/’—By the courtesy of the Editor, Dr. Frank 
P. Foster. 

"the tumor problem/'’ 

"There is at the present time no question in medi¬ 
cine which is more in the foreground than that of the 
nature and origin of tumors. The subject is, studied 
from all sides, and with the introduction of experi¬ 
mental research the morphological and chemical 
methods have received fresh impetus. Tumors con¬ 
stitute one of the most important diseases to which 
man is subject; they appear at all ages, the morbidity 
and mortality is large, and the end is usually at¬ 
tended with great suffering. The methods used with 
such success in the study of infectious diseases have 
failed so completely to explain the origin of tumors 
that it is now very generally accepted that tumors do 
not come into this class of disease. The tissues of 
tumors while in the main conforming to the type of 
the tissues of the animal bearing the tumor, yet differ 
in so many ways that a classification based on struc¬ 
ture and tissue of origin is far from being perfect. 

"In certain classes of tumors there are almost as 
numerous views as to origin as there are investiga¬ 
tors. The chemical study of tumors, though it has 
given important knowledge, has as yet shed no light 
on any of the fundamental questions * * *.”•—The 
Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, Jan. 28, 1909, 
by the courtesy of the Publishers, the D. C. Heath Co. 

"our vast ignorance.” 

"Confronted with so simple a thing as a wart, for 
instance, the thinking man stands appalled at his own 



98 


THE INCREASE OF DISEASE 


tremendous ignorance. What is it ? A proliferation 
'of tissue. True, perhaps, but why and how? The 
eternal question: why? Cancer, likewise, is merely 
constructive cellular activity gone wrong; but why? 
And in our puny ignorance, because of it and to con¬ 
ceal it, we have invented the application of many 
terms and names which, if interpreted, simply mean 
‘I do not know/ ‘Idiopathic’ is a delightful word; 
almost as pleasant to the ear as ‘neurosis’; and quite 
as meaningless. One should, therefore, have infinite 
charity for research and a very broad faith tem¬ 
pered only with sufficient scepticism to keep him from 
falling into too hasty belief. When, for example, 
the door is opened upon such vistas of speculation as 
have been presented by the work which will all be 
called to the mind’s eye by the new word ‘opsonin,’ 
the thoughtful man is given much food for reflection. 
On the one hand he is in danger of falling into the 
abyss of too sanguine and enthusiastic acceptance of 
wonders to be soon accomplished; on the other he is 
in equal danger of stepping into the morass of utter 
denial and foolish scepticism. What will be the 
eventual value of the work of Wright and others de¬ 
veloped from their ‘opsonic index,’ etc., no man can 
say. At present, however, the working out of the 
‘index’ is too trammeled with possible error to be re¬ 
garded as in the slightest degree a scientific proceed¬ 
ing. But certain basic facts of greatest value are in¬ 
volved and they at once arrest attention. The living 
unit is fed by his blood stream, and fed and nour¬ 
ished either well or ill. Here is the starting point of 
Wright’s work, and also the very recent work of Crile 
upon the cancer problem. Every portion of the in¬ 
dividual being fed by his blood stream, necessarily 
such bacteria as are making him their habitat must 
also be so fed; and proliferative processes like cancer 



THE INCREASE OF DISEASE 


99 


formation are likewise so nourished. Can the con¬ 
tent of the blood or some of its remote and not un¬ 
derstood characteristics be so modified as to desirably 
modify abnormal processes in the individual ? That, 
to a certain extent this can be done, is a well known 
and accepted fact. The question presents itself per¬ 
sistently, however: To what extent is it possible to 
carry this principle into practical and useful appli¬ 
cation in the treatment of disease ? There was a time 
when all diseases were ‘blood diseases’; when ‘hu¬ 
mors of the blood’ were the cause of everything from 
blasted love to broken necks. There was later a time 
when to intimate that any affection might have its 
origin in the blood was to excite ridicule. But again 
the pendulum has swung and the blood is once more 
receiving the rapt attention of investigators, though 
as yet we may truthfully say that, relatively, we know 
nothing about it.”—From the California State Jour¬ 
nal of Medicine for August, 1908. 

“the need of a scientific clearing house.” 

“Observations and facts are of no scientific value 
except as material for the exercise of deductive rea¬ 
soning, and the imaginative, creative, organizing 
faculty is as necessary to the formulation of great 
scientific principles as to the incarnation of great 
lessons in art. What medical science needs in this 
age, more than all else, is a deductive genius. A 
great mass of bald, disjointed facts and opinions, in 
which the student shall look in vain for a thread to 
guide him, or even a reliable classification to suggest 
an interpretation of the medley, and to which a fresh 
mass of facts and opinions is being daily added in 
similar hodge-podge fashion, is at this moment await¬ 
ing the advent of a master brain which shall bring 



100 


THE INCREASE OF DISEASE 


order out of chaos. We await a genius who shall 
discern and show us a unity of significance in these 
disconnected inductions and predicate upon them a 
law, a principle, a hypothesis even, which will relate 
them into a unity of meaning and give to them a basic 
and a priori value. A medical Newton—a second 
Virchow even—is the need of the times. The hour has 
come, but not the man.”—Medical Standard, Sept., 
1905, by permission of the Editor of the Medical 
Standard. 


That the reader may get a glimpse of one of the 
reasons for the above described situation—the con¬ 
fusion that still exists in scientific circles regarding 
foods and their uses—attention is now earnestly in¬ 
vited to the following extracts from a paper on “ The¬ 
ories of Metabolism’’ read at a meeting of the New 
York Section of the American Chemical Society by 
the eminent Professor Graham Lusk, and published 
in the July 7,1905, number of Science: 


“There is a difference of opinion as to whether the 
food substances must first become vital integers of 
the living cell, or whether the non-living food mate¬ 
rials are metabolized without ever becoming a con¬ 
stituent part of the living protoplasm. 

“Pfiuger holds the former view that incorporation 
of nutritive matter with the living substance is essen¬ 
tial to its metabolism. He conceives that living pro- 
teid may contain the labile cyanogen group in con¬ 
trast with dead proteid which contains the animo 
group. * * *” 


“Voit’s theory is that the living proteid is com¬ 
paratively stable and that food proteid which becomes 
the circulating proteid of the blood is carried to the 



THE INCREASE OF DISEASE 


101 


cells and promptly metabolized. The other food¬ 
stuffs are also burned without first entering into the 
composition of the cell. 

“A mass of living cells composing the substance 
of a warm-blooded animal has the same requirement 
of energy as any similar mass of living cells com¬ 
posing the substance of any other animal of the same 
size and shape. The reason for the metabolism lies 
in unknown causes within the cells. Liebig con¬ 
ceived the cause to be due to the swinging motion of 
the small, constituent particles of the cells themselves. 
If this hypothesis be accepted the vibrations of the 
cells may be assumed to shatter the proteid molecule 
into fragments consisting of amino bodies, and to 
break down fat and sugar into substances of a lower 
order than themselves. * * *” 

“Within recent years the work of Kossel, Fischer, 
Hofmeister and Levene has given a more definite con¬ 
ception of the composition of proteid than was before 
possible. There is every indication that the proteid 
molecule consists fundamentally of groups of amino 
fatty acids banded together. Proteids vary with the 
integral components of their chemical chains. It has 
long been known that the end products of tryptic di¬ 
gestion include such substances, but Kutscher first 
showed that continued tryptic digestion resulted in 
the complete transformation of proteid into these 
amino-acids. Cohnheim discovered erepsin, an en¬ 
zyme derived from the intestinal wall, which rapidly 
converts albumoses into these substances. * * *” 

“The question arises, to what extent may the 
amino bodies formed within the intestine be regen¬ 
erated into proteid? It is believed that the cells of 
the intestinal villus regenerate fat from fatty acid 
and glycerin, since neutral fat alone is found in the 



102 


THE INCREASE OF DISEASE 


thoracic duct. But all the starch fed is not regen¬ 
erated into starch, nor is maltose regenerated into 
maltose in the body. Much may be burned as dex¬ 
trose and only a part is transformed into glycogen. 
Long ago Schultzen and Nencki stated that a certain 
amount of amino bodies formed in digestive pro¬ 
teolysis was absorbed and burned, and that the ab¬ 
sorbed proteid itself followed the lines of an enzy¬ 
matic cleavage into amino bodies. In the light of 
newer knowledge several authorities have recently 
elaborated theories along similar lines. It has been 
pointed out by Folin that there is little evidence of 
reconstruction of all the proteid ingested. He cites 
the experiments of Nencki and Zaleski, which showed 
that the portal blood during digestion contains four 
times as much ammonia as arterial blood, and that 
the mucosa of both stomach and intestine yield large 
quantities of ammonia. The inference is that the 
ammonia of the portal vein is derived from ammonia 
produced in the mucosa as well as from that which 
normally originates in the intestine during tryptic 
proteolysis. * * *” 

“ Although some proteid metabolism may take 
place as above outlined, it is an undoubted fact that 
proteid may be synthesized in the body with the for¬ 
mation of new tissue, and also that proteids injected 
into the blood stream, as in cases of transfusion of 
blood serum, are rapidly destroyed and the nitrogen 
eliminated as urea. The conditions of proteid 
metabolism may, therefore, be entirely similar to 
those of starch metabolism, (1) digestive hydrolysis, 
(2) partial combustion of the end products, and* (3) 
possible regeneration of portions of the end products 
into substances similar to the originals, but character¬ 
istic of the organism, i. e., glycogen and body proteids. 



THE INCREASE OF DISEASE 


103 


In the case of proteids the second or metabolic process 
involves the partial passage of the end products 
through the glucose stage. The third or regenerative 
process is promoted by such a proteid as casein, 
which yields a variety of cleavage products. * 

“As regards fat metabolism Geelmuyden is in¬ 
clined to the opinion that oxybutyric acid, aceto-acetic 
acid and acetone are normal metabolism products 
derived from members higher up in the series. 

“As regards dextrose Stoklasa announces that all 
animal and vegetable cells contain enzymes capable 
of converting dextrose into alcohol and carbon diox¬ 
ide. He also finds a ferment in animal tissues able to 
convert sugar into lactic acid. He quotes Oppen- 
heimer’s experiment, showing that whereas fresh 
normal blood yielded little lactic acid on standing at 
37° C., much greater amounts were formed if dex¬ 
trose was added. He believes that this lactic acid is 
subsequently converted into alcohol and carbon 

dioxide. _ _ , 

“Embden comes to the conclusion that blood sugar 
through the liver may be broken up into lactic acid. 
It has been previously shown that lactic acid could be 
converted into dextrose and it is a curious fact that 
the same dextrose may pass through the lactic-acid 
stage on its way to oxidation. * * *” 

“Rubner gives the following theory of metabol¬ 
ism: Living proteid, through the vibrations of its 
particles, metabolizes the food substances. The ac¬ 
tion resembles catalysis. The energy liberated reacts 
on the particles of protoplasm, causing a change m 
their position and a cessation of metabolism. The 
particles then return to their original position and 
the cycle begins again. These processes require a 
fixed amount of energy. Rubner does not give his 




1104 


THE INCREASE OF DISEASE 


Reasons for believing in this rhythm of excitation and 
rest. * * *” 

“Friedenthal shows that proteid, colloidal carbo¬ 
hydrates, fats and soaps are not oxidizable in the 
cellular fluids without previous hydrolytic cleavage. 
After hydrolysis, however, the oxidases may effect an 
oxidation of the smaller molecules. The necessity of 
the hydrolytic ferment is seen in the non-combustion 
of dextrose after the extirpation of the pancreas, the 
organ by which the ferment is supplied. Oxygen and 
the oxidases are present in ample quantity, but the 
sugar is not burned unless it be broken by its specific 
ferment. In the meantime the cell avails itself of a 
compensatory energy supply from other sources. It 
is impossible to apply anything similar to Ehrlich’s 
side-chain theory to this condition of affairs, for the 
metabolism does not depend upon the satisfaction of 
chemical affinities, but rather upon a definite law of 
utilization of energy equivalents. 

“ However clearly formulated the laws of metabol¬ 
ism may be, and many of them are as fixed and defi¬ 
nite as are any laws of physics and chemistry, still 
the primary cause of metabolism remains a hidden 
secret of the living bioplasm.” 

Professor Lusk states the truth when he says, as 
he does in the fourth paragraph of this series of 
quotations, that “the reason for the metabolism lies in 
unknown causes within the cell.” In the last para¬ 
graph he reiterates the observation by saying: “the 
primary cause of metabolism remains a hidden secret 
of the living bioplasm.” 

Regarding this matter I would respectfully sub¬ 
mit in passing that the agency, or cause, on which the 



THE INCREASE OF DISEASE 


105 


metabolic process depends is radically different from 
what authorities have been led to suppose and that 
upon their misconception depends the vast world of 
confusion that they have encountered. As intimated 
in the preceding chapter, the metabolic philosophers 
have been laboring under a load of misbeliefs and, per 
consequence, have been viewing things in false colors 
and distorted relations. That is to say, they have 
been led by a set of plausible but erroneous theories 
to see life where life does not exist, and to see virtues 
in things which are absolutely vicious. 

Having been led in the long ago to suspect that 
there must be something radically wrong with the 
current teaching in matters medical, I set out with 
the definite purpose, not only of detecting, if possible, 
any flaws that might exist in the fundamental postu¬ 
lates of our branch of science, but of emulating the 
example set by the illustrious Sir Isaac Newton, by 
pushing the work of investigation from the domain of 
the phenomenal into that of the fundamental—from 
the realm of facts and occurrences into that of 

ACTUATING ENERGIES and RULING PRINCIPLES. 

Whether my labors were or were not successful, 
are questions the determination of which is freely left 
to the judgment of those who may extend to me the 
favor of a careful and unbiased consideration of the 
facts and conclusions set forth in the remaining chap¬ 
ters of this work. 




CHAPTER III. 


THE SEARCH FOR THE MASTER-KEY TO VITAL 
PHENOMENA. 

Preliminary Observations, Concepts and Conclu¬ 
sions, comprehending the Evolution of the Rea¬ 
sons for a Radical Departure in Physiological 
Research and Investigation. 

The material Universe has two grand divisions, or 
departments, the physical and the vital, or the in¬ 
animate and the animate, the non-living and the 
living. Each of these departments has its own Actu¬ 
ating Agent or Motive Power and its own Code of 
Laws or Ruling Principles—agencies and rules of 
action, the existence and importance of which were 
more or less apparent to the students and philoso¬ 
phers of the remote past. Plato, for instance, repre¬ 
sents Socrates as saying that he had “ looked at many 
authorities and among others at the nature of things, 
but dared not look long for fear his eyes would be 
dazzled.” 

Since the most gifted men of the Socratian period 
were destitute of information regarding the natural 
forces , it may well be supposed that the term “the 
nature of things,” as used by Socrates, had reference 
to the mystery of things —the mystery involved in 
the flowing of the waters; in the falling of bodies; in 
the coming and going of the seasons; in the rising and 
the setting of the sun and moon; in the solar and 
106 


AXIOMATIC FIRST TRUTHS 


107 


lunar eclipses; in the movements of the planets and 
other celestial spheres, in chemical phenomena and in 
the still more marvelous activities of the domain of 
animated nature—that is, in the birth and growth of 
men, animals and insects; in the multifarious per¬ 
formances of mind and body, and in those supremely 
enigmatical changes that go to make up the symptom¬ 
atology of disease. The writings of the sages of the 
remote past are replete with evidences of their having 
seen in prophetic vision the fact set forth in a preced¬ 
ing paragraph as a well-known concept of modern 
times, that the Creator has so arranged the various 
departments of the material universe that the Engines 
of JLabor, or Actuating Energies thereof, are con¬ 
cealed beneath a dense and seemingly impenetrable 
veil of complex and diversified phenomena—a co¬ 
quettish masking of His Forces and Rules of Action 
which arrests the attention, challenges the admiration 
and taxes to the uttermost the discernment of 
mankind. 


AXIOMATIC FIRST TRUTHS. 

Aristotle, the justly celebrated Athenian philoso¬ 
pher and the first to make a distinction between act 
and power —between actuality and potentiality—saw 
in prophetic vision the subsequently demonstrated 
fact that the activities of each department of the ma¬ 
terial universe depend upon an actuating agent or 
combination of such, and that every such agent or 
combination is governed by well-defined laws. And 
he indicated his opinion of any attempt at science- 



108 


SEARCH FOR THE KEY TO VITAL PHENOMENA 


building which does not have a knowledge of these 
forces and laws as its basis by saying: 

“ Those who forsake the nature of things, or ax¬ 
iomatic first-truths, will not and cannot find sure 
ground on which to built. ’ ’ 

But the experiences and observations of the cen¬ 
turies go to show that the discovery of these agencies 
has involved a surpassingly difficult task. The 
matchless Power, for example, that rules on the 
physical plane, holding in its supremely powerful 
grip the entire material universe and imparting ac¬ 
tivity to countless objects, animate and inanimate, 
was so profoundly obscured by the facts addressed to 
the senses that it w T as able to baffle the physical phil¬ 
osophers for more than forty centuries. But in the 
plenitude of his native independence, industry and 
sagacity Newton forsook the beaten track of depend¬ 
ing upon a mere knowledge of facts and pushed his 
investigations from the domain of the phenomenal 
into that of the fundamental —from the realm of facts 
and occurrences into that of Actuating Energies and 
Buling Principles. In other words, Newton ignored 
the dictates of established precedent and prosecuted 
his researches until he succeeded in rounding out a 
discovery which was the first of its kind and so vast in 
its importance that it had the incidental effect of in¬ 
vesting his memory with a nimbus of unfading glory 
—namely, a definite knowledge of Gravitation and of 
the Rules by which it is governed—a two-fold achieve¬ 
ment which appears to be in perfect keeping with 
the remarks of Plato and Aristotle, Gravitation be- 



AXIOMATIC FIRST TRUTHS 


109 


ing the real ii nature of things,” while the laws 
thereof are the “axiomatic first-truths.” 

The power, or form of Energy, that rules in the 
realm of atoms and molecules, producing slowly and 
quietly, or suddenly and powerfully (as the laws 
thereof may determine) the marvelous transforma¬ 
tions of the Chemical domain, was sufficiently ob¬ 
scured by things visible and tangible to enable it to 
elude the best talent of the scientific domain for a still 
greater length of time. That is to say, the Alchemists 
of old, confining their researches to the facts of ex¬ 
perience and observation—things supposedly “real 
and certain”—labored for centuries without obtain¬ 
ing any reward, save the plaudits of the ignorant and 
the meager revenues of a heartless empiricism. 

But in the progress of time Dalton and his fellow 
laborers in the interest of science and humanity, emu¬ 
lating the example set by Newton, pushed their in¬ 
vestigations to the extent of discovering the Power 
on which chemical phenomena depend—Chemical 
Affinity—and the laws by which it is governed—a 
fund of knowledge of the most valuable order, since 
it not only dissipated a vast amount of confusion, 
contention and speculation, but furnished the ground¬ 
work for commercial enterprises of enormous pro¬ 
portions and incalculable value. 

While it is true that Gravitation and Chemical 
Affinity were long ago numbered among the trophies 
of militant science, it is freely conceded by the high¬ 
est authorities that the basic principles of the vita] 
economy are still lingering in the realm of the un- 




110 


SEARCH FOR THE KEY TO VITAL PHENOMENA 


known. Among the many concessions here referred 
to is the following: 

“The measure of these various quantities of en¬ 
ergy, useful and wasted, necessary or incidental to 
the purpose of the existence of a machine or its ap¬ 
plication to useful work, is, in the case of the external 
useful work, of a laboring man or animal, easily and 
accurately made; but all the other items are very 
difficult, and usually, at present, at least, impossible 
of more than approximate measurement, even if any 
clue can be obtained at all to their methods of action 
or their absolute and relative quantities. We have 
not yet discovered the nature of the primary methods 
of transformation of the energies imported, as latent, 
into the system, or even what energies are active in 
the production of the work of the brain and nervous 
systems and in the automatic operation of the ma¬ 
chine. We know enough, however, to prove that 
the animal machine is a motor of very high efficiency 
as compared with the prime movers devised by man 
(his thermodynamic engines, at least), and to indi¬ 
cate, if not to prove, that the machine is a thermo¬ 
electric, chemico-dynamic, electro-dynamic, or 
chemico-electric apparatus, or else a prime mover in 
which some unknown form of energy, acting by as 
yet undiscovered methods, is transformed more eco¬ 
nomically than in any case familiar to the man of 
science or of the engineer of our time.”—Prof. R. H. 
Thurston, Smithsonian Institution Report for 1896, 
page 314. 

THE VITOMOTTVE POWER. 

Having in the long ago been forced by my experi¬ 
ences and observations to realize that the existing 
medical philosophy is not as explicit and trustworthy 



THE VITOMOTIVE-POWER 


111 


as it is generally supposed to be, I set out with the 
definite purpose of solving, if possible, the manifold 
mysteries in which vital phenomena, normal and ab¬ 
normal, were still enshrouded. And in the prosecu¬ 
tion of my preliminary studies I was led to perceive 
that the accomplishment of this important task de¬ 
pended upon the discovery of the power that rules on 
the vital plane and the laws by which it is governed. 

A careful study of the nervous and muscular 
structures and of the order and extent of their action 
led me to believe that Muscular Energy, whatever it 
might prove to be, was the only thing that could justly 
be deemed the counterpart of Gravitation and Chemi¬ 
cal Affinity, and that it must, therefore, be worthy of 
a name of its own, and, hence, I ventured to call it 
the Vitomotive-Power. 

Some eminent scientists have seemed to believe 
that the nervous influence is at the bottom of vitomo- 
tive phenomena, but the fact that a vast amount of 
experimentation with the torpedo and other electrical 
fishes failed to make the truth of their contention 
so much as fairly evident, together with the further 
fact that a long period of practically complete silence 
regarding the matter has since supervened indicates, 
if I mistake not, that the 1 4 electro-motive 7 ’ hypothesis 
has been abandoned. At any rate, this doctrine did 
not appeal to me as being at all dependable. 

I was thus led on and on, step by step, until I 
found myself face to face, as it were, with the evi- 
ently abstruse and apparently unanswerable ques¬ 
tions: 1. What is muscular Energy? 2. How and 



112 


SEARCH FOR THE KEY TO VITAL PHENOMENA 


from what is it obtained? 3. How is it called into 
being ? 4. By what rules is it governed ? 5. What is 
the measure of its power? 6. How does it impinge 
upon the muscular structures with the effect of set¬ 
ting the vital machinery in motion ? 

Long before I entered the field of research the 
medical world possessed a fairly complete knowledge 
of nervous energy, or vital electricity, and of calor 
animalis, or animal heat. But the power that ani¬ 
mates and propels the vital machine had to that day 
remained the unknown quantity in the biologic and 
physiologic equations. Nor had any article insisting 
upon the importance of solving this problem ap¬ 
peared in our literature. At any rate, I had not 
found or heard of anything of the kind. 

THE MASTER KEY. 

That a definite knowledge of the agency, now des¬ 
ignated as the Vitomotive-Power, is the Master-Key 
to the activities of life, and that the laws thereof are 
the “axiomatic first truths” of the vital economy, are 
propositions the truth of which is evinced by the fact 
that the reign of this particular form of energy— 
whatever it may be—is absolutely universal, not so 
much as the slightest movement of the body, or any 
part thereof, being at all possible without it. In 
other words, the vitomotive-power is regnant in all 
vital operations, whether feeble or powerful, normal 
or abnormal. If the mandates of the will are to be 
executed, this agency must do it. If the instinctive 
decrees are to be carried out, the power that actuates 



THE MASTER-KEY 


113 


the muscles must be the chief executive. In short, if 
the will is to be obeyed or the functions of organic 
life are to be performed, that form of energy which 
finds expression in the contraction of the muscles 
must be at the bottom of the work. 

The functions of the Vitomotive-Power may be 
both succinctly and alliteratively described by say¬ 
ing: Upon muscular action chiefly depend all labor, 
all locomotion, all prehension, all mastication, all 
deglutition, all secretion, all digestion, all peristal¬ 
tic action, all absorption, all circulation, all intra¬ 
vascular transportation, all cardiac propulsion, all 
pulmonary and cutaneous respiration, all glandular 
action, all cutaneous transpiration, and all excretion, 
or elimination. 

It seems not to have been so considered, and yet 
it is an undeniable fact, that the power that actuates 
the muscles is at the bottom of the abnormal as well 
as the normal activities of the body. For the phe¬ 
nomena commonly called “ nervous twitchings,” to¬ 
gether with those graver involuntary movements 
which are called spasms and convulsions, are nothing 
more nor less than the muscular anarchy that is su¬ 
perinduced by nervous irritation. 

The importance of an accurate knowledge of the 
nature, origin and modus operandi of a thing which 
plays so prominent a part as this in the vital econ¬ 
omy, is so plain that it would seem to be nothing less 
than a reckless waste of time to dwell on the subject, 
and yet it may not be amiss to do so. 

The fact of the existence of some agent such as 



114 


SEARCH FOR THE KEY TO VITAL PHENOMENA 


the vitomotive-power is as obvious as it is important, 
and hence, to ignore the obviously urgent demand for 
its discovery and simply assert that “ muscular fibres 
are endowed with the property of contractility/’ as 
anatomists have done, is but to ignore the most im¬ 
portant of all issues at the expense of an obviously 
false assumption. For all reason, all analogy and 
all scientific attainment testify to the effect, if I 
may say it, that the muscles have no such property, 
but act as they are acted upon by some form of energy 
that is derived from the food with which they are 
supplied from day to day. 

There are many other and equally momentous 
reasons for saying that the vitomotive-power is at the 
bottom of all life and of all the performances and 
possibilities thereunto pertaining, the maintenance of 
the nervous, mental and thermal energies, not ex¬ 
cepted. For these agencies are all dependent upon 
digestion and nutrition, and these processes, in turn, 
upon muscular action; the former upon the peristaltic 
motion of the alimentary tract, and the latter upon 
the rhythmical expansions and contractions of the 
heart and arteries. 

It is safe to say that the more the facts and phe¬ 
nomena of life are viewed and investigated the more 
evident will be the fact, that the reign of the agent in 
question is limited only by the boundaries of the vast 
domain of animated nature. Within this empire, in¬ 
conceivably great as it really is, the vitomotive- 
power is the reigning potentate, the monarch of all 
that it surveys, so to speak. There is and can be no 



THE VITOMOTIVE APHORISM 


115 


exception to its sway; for every living creature, how¬ 
ever small or great, is a mechanical contrivance and 
the vitomotive-power is beyond all peradventure the 
agent that animates and propels it. 

THE VITOMOTIVE APHORISM. 

The correctness of the proposition that the reign 
of the agent in question is commensurate with the 
broad domain of animated existence, and of the fur¬ 
ther contention that it plays the most conspicuous 
part in the drama of life, may be seen by reference to 
the perfectly obvious fact that: Where the Vito- 
motive-Power is plentiful and free, health is; where 
it is diminished or repressed, disease is; where it is 
entirely wanting, death is. 

For these and other reasons too numerous to men¬ 
tion we may safely assume that: The ego, or inherent 
life principle, plus the vitomotive-power and its aux¬ 
iliary agencies, nervous, mental and thermal, is life, 
and that the rules that obtain in the development and 
performance of these agencies, are the laws of life. 

The importance of a definite knowledge of the 
Yitomotive-Power is still further evinced by the his¬ 
toric fact that the discovery of Nature’s Actuating 
Energies has always resulted in the discovery of her 
laws, and that the discovery of these laws has had 
the manifold effect of bringing order out of chaos 
and a new and true science into being, of harmonizing 
contending parties, of discrediting, or obliterating 
empiricism and of advancing human interests in 
general. 



116 


SEARCH FOR THE KEY TO VITAL PHENOMENA 


Time was, for example, when chemistry occupied 
very nearly the same position in the scale of scientific 
attainment, that medicine does at the present time, in 
that it was scarcely more than a disjointed compila¬ 
tion of theories, speculations and unexplained facts, 
and hence, the favorite tool of unprincipled charla¬ 
tans. But the discovery of chemical affinity, and of 
the laws by which this agency is governed, led to the 
overthrow of empiricism and the establishment of 
legitimate enterprises of vast proportions and in¬ 
estimable value, as remarked in a preceding para¬ 
graph. 

Time was when the meaning of physical phe¬ 
nomena was a matter of speculation and the food of 
ceaseless controversy. In those days the fact that an 
apple falls to the ground the moment that it becomes 
detached, from its parent stem, was no less enig¬ 
matical than the journeyings of the countless spheres 
that inhabit the immensities of ethereal space. Then it 
was that false theories prevailed, leading good men to 
do that which is now generally known to be utterly 
wrong and indefensible—namely, to compel Galileo, 
the celebrated Italian physicist, to renounce the glim¬ 
merings of scientific truth that he had obtained and 
promulgated. But an eternal quietus was finally put 
upon the contentions of the physical and religious 
philosophers, and by the simple but all-sufficient pro¬ 
cedure of finding out what the motive power of the 
physical universe really was and by what laws, or 
rules it was governed. That is to say the discovery of 
the energy of attraction, or gravitation was followed 




THE MASTER-KEY 


117 


by the discovery of the laws that preside over the 
events of the physical realm, and this, in turn, by a 
prevision of future events, both tidal and celestial, 
which is as valuable as it is marvelous. 

In a word, has it not come to be a self evident fact, 
that what the medical world needs, is not a mere 
knowledge of the facts and phenomena of life, be this 
ever so complete, but a code of principles which ivill 
explain the facts f And how can we formulate such a 
code without first obtaining a definite knowledge of 
the form of energy upon which vitomotive-phe¬ 
nomena chiefly depend, as above suggested? 

And inasmuch as all scientific discoveries have 
tended to simplify matters by disclosing either a sin¬ 
gle causative agency, or at most a few co-operating 
causes, as the basis of a wide range of complex and 
seemingly diverse phenomena, why may we not rea¬ 
sonably expect to find a similar basis for the phe¬ 
nomena of health ? And, if we succeed in doing this, 
why may we not as reasonably expect to find a some¬ 
what similar basis for the manifold facts and occur¬ 
rences that go to make up the symptomatology of 
disease ? 

If it is possible for the human mind to push its 
investigations beyond the domain of visible things 
into that of invisible force, and not only grasp so 
grand a truth as that which resides in the fact that a 
single agency (gravitation) presides over the vast 
and varied events of the physical universe but to go 
further and formulate the doctrine of the conserva¬ 
tion of energy as we now have it, why may it not go 



118 


SEARCH FOR THE KEY TO VITAL PHENOMENA 


still further and complete this doctrine by showing 
what the vitomotive-power really is, how and from 
what elements it is developed, how it is controlled by 
the will, how it propels the vital machine, and what 
causes the vital organism to pass into emaciation, and 
the motive power thereof to fade into nothingness, as 
they do in such diseases as marasmus, general de¬ 
bility and Pulmonary Consumption? Is there so 
much as the slightest prospect that we shall ever be 
able to solve the mysteries of life in any other way 
than that of pushing our investigations from the 
realm of facts and occurrences into that of laws and 
forces? In other words, can we ever succeed in the 
all-important matter of solving the problems of the 
vital economy, and in the scarcely less important mat¬ 
ter of abolishing those kaleidoscopic changes in medi¬ 
cine on which the empiricism of the centuries has been 
founded in any other way than that of finding out 
what the motive power of the living machine really 
is, and what its rules of action are ? 

Since man has succeeded so admirably in the dis¬ 
covery of the forces and laws that preside over the 
events of the macrocosm, or physical universe, why 
may he not succeed in the more important matter of 
discovering the forces and principles that preside 
over the events of the microcosm, or miniature world, 
in which he dwells ? 

Is it possible that man the acknowledged master¬ 
piece of creation shall be permitted to understand 
everything else in nature but himself, and to acquire 




THE MYSTERY OF MUSCULAR POWER 


119 


a knowledge of all other energies and ruling princi¬ 
ples but those of his own being ? 

What headway can we make, or even expect to 
make, in the direction of actual and incontestable 
medical progression, as evinced by the elucidation, 
prevention and eradication of such energy-destroying 
diseases as apoplexy, paralysis and consumption, and 
of such vitality-destroying affections as necrosis, 
gangrene and carcinoma, without a definite knowl¬ 
edge of the motive power of the vital machine, and 
of the laws by which it is governed? Let the chaos 
that remains in matters medical after nearly twenty- 
five centuries of an opposite course of procedure an¬ 
swer. In short, let all experience, all reason, all anal¬ 
ogy, and all scientific attainment, answer these 
questions. 

THE MYSTERY OF MUSCULAR POWER. 

From time immemorial it has been known that 
the vital organism is propelled by muscular power, 
but no one of the thousands of men who have been ac¬ 
corded the leadership in matters medical has shown 
or even seriously attempted to find out what this par¬ 
ticular form of energy is. Several years ago Dr. 
Austin Flint, *Jr., of New York, published a mono¬ 
graph entitled: “The Source of Muscular Power/'' 
In this work much was said in regard to the source 
and the importance of muscular power, but no ques¬ 
tion was raised as to what this power is in reality. In 
the preface to the above named work the importance 
of muscular power is referred to as follows: 



120 


SEARCH FOR THE KEY TO VITAL PHENOMENA 


“At the present time there are few questions re¬ 
lating to physiology, of greater interest and impor¬ 
tance than the one which is the subject of this essay. 
Since the publication of the experiments of Fick and 
Wislicenus, in 1866, a large number of observations 
have been made, which are brought forward as evi¬ 
dence that the muscular system of a fully-developed 
man or other animal is simply a perfected mechanical 
apparatus, like an artificially-constructed machine, 
which accomplished work, not at the expense of its 
own substance, the material consumed being restored 
by food, but by using the food itself, the force-value 
of which can be accurately calculated, as we can cal¬ 
culate the dynamic value of the fuel consumed in a 
steam-engine. These observations have led some phy¬ 
siologists to adopt a kind of materialism, the funda¬ 
mental idea of which is that the only matter con¬ 
cerned by its transformations in the production of 
muscular force is food. If a theory, with this idea 
as its basis, could be substantiated, it would indeed 
be an advance in positive knowledge, so great that 
its importance could hardly be over-estimated; and 
it is not surprising that the simplicity of the ex¬ 
planation of various physiological processes afforded 
by such an hypothesis should bring to its support 
many earnest and able advocates. 

“Since the enunciation of the laws of the correla¬ 
tion and conservation of forces, which are now almost 
universally accepted, it has seemed impossible to suc¬ 
cessfully controvert the notion that every manifesta¬ 
tion of force in animal bodies, not excluding man, is 
dependent upon some kind of transformation of mat¬ 
ter. Physiologists cannot comprehend the idea of 
the existence of any force unconnected with material 
changes, any more than it is possible to conceive of 
the absolute destruction of an atom of matter or of 



THE GREATEST WONDER OF LIFE 


121 


the generation or creation of something out of noth¬ 
ing.’ ’—By permission of the Author. 

Men of science are a unit regarding the impor¬ 
tance of the doctrine to which Dr. Flint refers in the 
latter paragraph, now commonly called the Doctrine 
of the Conservation of Energy, and while it is per¬ 
fectly evident that they realize that it must hold good 
in matters vital, no one of them has supplied the miss¬ 
ing link in this grand doctrine by showing how food- 
energy is transformed into muscular power. 

In his most interesting work “The Wonders of 
Life,” Professor Haeckel brings his readers up to 
the particular point in his argument where the sub¬ 
ject in question naturally presented itself, and then, 
in common with all other writers, he passed on with¬ 
out saying a word, practically speaking, regarding 
the greatest, perhaps, of all vital wonders—that of 
automation, locomotion or propulsive spontaneity. 

The late and very eminent Benjamin Ward Rich¬ 
ardson, of London, England, has also referred to this 
want of fundamental information in one of his latest 
works, and as follows: 

“What is the vital power that moves the engine; 
when we construct an engine of our own we use a 
power for movement. We may not know the nature 
of the power, but we know it by name—heat, light and 
electricity. But when we watch the movements of a 
living engine we do not know the motor propelling 
power that appears to act spontaneously. We may 
give it a name, but we are not sure about it yet, and 
this is what has ever been the case, although recent 
investigations tend to bring us nearer to the truth. 
Vita Medica, page 391, by permission of the publish- 



122 


SEARCH FOR THE KEY TO VITAL PHENOMENA 


ers, Longmans, Green & Co., London, New York and 
Bombay. 

The existing and long-felt want of knowledge of 
the Power that sets the vital machinery in motion has 
been referred to by the late Professor R. H. Thurs¬ 
ton, of Cornell University, and in the following 
terms: 

“The biologist can give microscopic measures and 
microphotographic pictures of the tissues, and can 
trace a nerve to its minutest ramifications; but we 
have yet to learn the secrets of the source of life, of 
method of production and application of energies, 
of those transformations that give form, structure, 
life, and power to the organism of monad or of man. 
He exhibits the mechanism of the fish, but finds not 
the secret of separation of oxygen from the medium 
in which he lives, and cannot produce a submarine 
vessel. He knows the shape and movement of the bird, 
but flight remains to him a mystery. He measures the 
heat of the animal body, but biologist, chemist, phy¬ 
sicist and engineer, all together, give us no hint of 
the method of its production. They know, to an 
ounce, the power per cubic inch or per pound of the 
muscle, but neither one nor all can say how that 
power is originated, how transferred or how exerted 
by the transmitting threads of working muscle.—See 
Science for Sept. 19, 1902. 

It is a self-evident fact that the agent referred to 
in these quotations as unknown is that which I have 
termed the vitomotive-power. Nor should the reader 
fail to bear in mind the obvious and profoundly im¬ 
portant circumstance that a depreciation of this par¬ 
ticular part of the vital fund is the first, the most 
conspicuous and the most persistent symptom of dis- 



FUNDAMENTAL DEFECTS 


123 


ease. If the loss of this energy be slight, as in the in- 
cipiency of the various diseases, we call it ‘ 1 languor, ’ 1 
or “lassitude ,’ 1 or ‘ 4 lowered vitality”; if it be some¬ 
what more pronounced we term it “general debility”; 
if it be still more severe we designate it as prostra¬ 
tion, and if it become completely exhausted, or non¬ 
existent our verdict finds expression in the appalling 
term death. 

A duly exacting and impartial investigation will 
convince anyone that the medical literature of the 
world, surpassingly voluminous, as it is, does not em¬ 
brace so much as a single well-defined fundamental 
principle . It will be seen that there are many half- 
truths, but no whole truths; many plausible theories, 
but no faultless theories; many ingenious specula¬ 
tions, but no conclusive explanations. It will be seen, 
for example, that two theories which are generally be¬ 
lieved to be correct are absolutely erroneous; that 
another theory which has enjoyed a long season of 
popularity contains a moity of truth and a world of 
error—a deficiency which renders its quantum of 
truth completely nugatory—and that another other¬ 
wise valuable theory is so incomplete that it is of but 
little practical importance. 

So soon as the correctness of these criticisms shall 
have been demonstrated, we may reasonably expect 
the leaders of the medical domain to act in accordance 
with the scientific precept enunciated by the eminent 
Lord Kelvin, and in the following terms: 

“ Science is bound by the everlasting law of honor 



124 


SEARCH FOR THE KEY TO VITAL PHENOMENA 


to face fearlessly every problem which can be fairly 
presented to it.” 

At the expense of very much, and I trust, very 
pardonable, repetition, I have endeavored to prepare 
the minds of my readers for the reception of the re¬ 
sults of my labors, comprehending what I have con¬ 
ceived to be the basic principles of the vital economy 
and for such interpretations of the facts and phe¬ 
nomena of life as these principles have suggested. 



CHAPTER IV. 

PHOTOLYTIC DISSOCIATION—SHOWING HOW ENERGY IS 
STORED IN FOOD. 

A New Theory of Plant Growth—disclosing the way 
in which and the means whereby Energy is 
stored up for the benefit of the various members 
of the domain of Animated Nature* 

“reincarnation. ” 

“Fresh growth, new loveliness, life and rebirth 
Come to the lavish earth; 

Beauties combined and recombined each spring,—- 
But no strange thing. 

Harebell and windflow’r, broom and anemone, 
Sprung from an ancestry 

Common to stars and elemental air, 

Make woodlands fair. 

“So, as we hush our souls in this still place 
Where first we saw love’s face; 

Centuries lean o’er us, and we are part 
Of nature’s heart. 

The very breeze from spirits that are dead 
Brings bliss remembered; 

And we have kinship with that beauty born 
On the First Morn.” 

Plant growth involves, as the poet has thus hap¬ 
pily declared, the reincarnation of certain elemental 
substances and this depends in part upon what may 
be called the circulating triumvirate of the physical 
realm: First, the carbon dioxide that is constantly 

125 


126 


HOW ENERGY IS STORED IN FOOD 


passing into and out of the atmosphere, and into and 
out of the organic compact, as in the building up and 
breaking down of plant substances. Second, the hy¬ 
drogen element of the water that is constantly going 
the rounds of evaporation, condensation, and precipi¬ 
tation. Third, the circulating liquid compound from 
which this hydrogen element is derived by the plant 
world, namely, Hi O, commonly called water. It goes 
without saying that the foremost object of these cir¬ 
culations and reincarnations is the production of 
the material on which the activities of the domain of 
animated nature depend—namely, food. 

A definite knowledge of the way in which and the 
means whereby the incarnation of the energy-dis¬ 
pensing elements of food is effected is one of the fore¬ 
most needs of the world, and yet it may in truth be 
said that the existing literature of the subject lacks 
a great deal of being conclusive. This fact w r as re¬ 
ferred to a few years ago (1895) by Prof. J. C. 
Arthur, Vice President of the Botanical Section of 
the Association for the Advancement of Science in 
the following terms: 

i “Thus far only the pedagogical side of the science 
has been brought prominently forward; but what can 
we say of the research side? So far as America is 
concerned, there is no research side; the science is 
equipped and expanded with facts and theories from 
foreign sources. A few papers embodying original 
investigations have been published by American 
teachers, but they were the result of studies carried on 
in German laboratories. A dozen or two papers have, 
indeed, been issued from our own laboratories within 



PHYSIOLOGICAL PROBLEMS 


127 


the last five years, but all of them have been the work 
of students, mostly in preparation for a degree., 
America has nothing to show that can in any wise 
compare with the important discoveries made and 
still being made by Francis Darwin in England, De 
Yries in Holland, Wiesner in Austria, or Sachs, 
Pfeffer, Yochting, Frank and others in Germany. 
There are ample reasons why this state of things need 
not be considered humiliating, and yet it is to be 
deplored as most unfortunate. 

“Let us turn to a hasty examination of some of 
the problems of physiology which await solution. 
They stand out prominently in every chapter of the 
science, and suggest to the scientific mind most tempt¬ 
ing opportunities for original investigation. The 
nutrition of plants is so imperfectly understood that 
it may appropriately be said to be a bundle of prob¬ 
lems. So little do we know of the processes that even 
what constitutes the plant’s food is in doubt. We 
know, for instance, that lime and magnesia are taken 
into the plant, but whether they are directly nutri¬ 
tive by becoming part of living molecules, or whether 
they serve as aids to nutritive processes, or become 
the means of disposing of waste materials within the 
organism, cannot be definitely stated. And to a 
greater or less extent similar conditions exist respect¬ 
ing potassium, phosphorus, sulphur, iron, and chlor¬ 
ine, which in fact embrace all the so-called mineral 
elements of plants. The movements and transforma¬ 
tions of the two most characteristic elements of or¬ 
ganic structures, carbon and nitrogen, are a little 
better known. Some progress has been made in trac¬ 
ing the steps by which the simple molecule of carbon 
dioxide derived from the atmosphere is built up into 
the complex, organic molecule of starch. But the 
further process by which the starch molecule com- 



128 


HOW ENERGY IS STORED IN FOOD 


bines with others to form the most complex and im¬ 
portant of all plant substances, protoplasm, is yet 
an almost complete mystery. The story of the prog¬ 
ress of discovery in ascertaining the means by which 
plants get their nitrogen is a fascinating one, and is 
not yet ended. These matters in part lie at the very 
foundation of the most fundamental of industries, 
agriculture. * * * The botanists, who thirty-five 
years ago demonstrated that carbon was taken into 
the plant through the leaves, and not to any material 
extent through the roots, struck a theme that revo¬ 
lutionized agricultural practice and added greatly to 
the wealth of the world/’■—From “Proceedings” of 
the A. A. A. S., Forty-Fourth Meeting, 1895. 

SOURCE OF THE VITAL ENERGIES. 

For a long space of time it has been realized in 
scientific circles that all the vital energies, save the 
ego, or inherent life-principle, are derived from food; 
that the vegetable kingdom is in the highest sense a 
food laboratory —each member thereof being to all 
intents and purposes a storage battery, receiving 
and holding for a time, the material from which some 
member of the animal kingdom is to derive its ener¬ 
gies, physical, nervous and thermal. But these con¬ 
cepts have never been rounded out into a clearly de¬ 
fined whole, or thoroughly developed proposition. 

The current teaching in this regard embraces what 
may be called the sunbeam theory and the chloro- 

PHYL HYPOTHESIS. 

These theories involve the contention, as the Cen¬ 
tury Dictionary puts it, that: 

“Chlorophyl granules are the essential agent in 



THE CHLOROFHYL MISCONCEPTION 


129 


the process of assimilation in plants, decomposing 
carbonic acid and water under the action of sunlight, 
with the evolution of oxygen and the formation of 
starch and other carbon compounds.’’ 

In short, it is held that the inorganic materials af¬ 
forded by the earth and the atmosphere are converted 
into organic material as we find it in the plant world, 
and that this is referable to the conjoint action of 
sunlight and chlorophyl. 

The best that can be said of this presentation of 
the matter is, that it is too indefinite to be of much 
practical value. We need to know the more especially 
how and by what means Energy is stored in the food 
we eat and the fuel we burn. Our authorities seem, 
at least, to teach that the solar radiations are actually 
stored away in the plant substance and that foods and 
fuels owe their value to the sunlight that they contain. 
The following extract affords an excellent example of 
the way in which the subject is usually handled: 

“ Moreover, it is to the solar radiations, absorbed 
and transformed on the earth’s surface, that we are 
indebted, not only for the phenomena called thermal, 
but for all other energy-phenomena which we witness. 
* * * p or? the wood which we use for fuel and the 
grain we use for food are valuable to us only because 
of the energy they have stored up from the sunlight 
in which they grew. Even the coal which is mined 
from the depths of the earth, evolves on burning, the 
energy of past ages, gathered when the plants of the 
carboniferous epoch drank in the sunlight of those 
days. Both food and fuel owe their value to the po¬ 
tential energy which they contain; and this energy is 
all stored sunlight.”—Barker’s Physics, page 350, 



130 


HOW ENERGY IS STORED IN FOOD 


Edition of 1893. By permission of the publishers, 
Henry Holt & Co., New York. 

All authorities express themselves in a similar 
manner, and whether it was the intention or not the 
fact remains that the language employed seems to 
convey the idea that the solar beams are actually 
stored up in the substance of the plant. At any rate, 
the doctrine in question has proved to be the most 
facinating proposition that the scientific world has 
ever advanced. The idea that our bodies are warmed 
and actuated, and that our homes are heated and 
lighted by “ resurrected sunbeams, 99 has certainly 
taken a very deep hold upon both the scientific world 
and the general public. Nevertheless, it is, to say the 
least, open to the objection of being too indefinite to 
be of much practical value. As before stated, it seems 
to teach that the solar beams are actually stored away 
in the plant and that they are in some undefined way 
converted into the vital energies and into the heat and 
light that we derive from fuel. But in view of the 
well-known fact that the solar radiations are imma¬ 
terial and utterly incapable, therefore, of assuming 
the material form of existence, as the theory in ques¬ 
tion would seem to demand, it must be admitted that 
the sunbeam theory is too indefinite, not to say vis¬ 
ionary, to be of much practical value, as already 
observed. 

Regarding the chlorophyl hypothesis it may in 
reason be said that it involves the mistake of attrib¬ 
uting to the thing formed the work of forming things. 
For it is far more reasonable, if I may say it, to 



THE CHLOROPHYL MISCONCEPTION 


131 


hold: First, that the thing termed ehlorophyl is not 
“the essential agent in assimilation in plants,” but 
the first product of the assimilating process; second, 
that this newly-formed material reflects the green 
rays of the solar spectrum, the visible effect being the 
green color of the leaf in which it is formed. 

The feasibleness of this view of the matter is evi¬ 
denced by the well-known circumstance that the com¬ 
mon potato, the leading representative of the amy¬ 
laceous species of vegetable matter, as it comes direct 
from the soil in which it grew, is not green, but white, 
and that in consequence of exposure to the solar 
beams it gradually assumes a green color. It is need¬ 
less to prolong the discussion any further than to 
suggest that the change of color thus effected in the 
potato cannot in justice be attributed to an increment 
of any sort, material or immaterial. The potato is 
merely rendered capable of reflecting the green rays 
of the solar spectrum. 

The “Exact Sciences” involve not the slightest 
discernible flaw; not the slightest discrepancy; not 
the smallest fragment of chaos, not a single missing 
link, and no tangled skeins or other evidence of in¬ 
completeness or untrustworthiness. But this cannot 
be said of the theory in question. It is proper, there¬ 
fore, to seek a better interpretation of nature’s opera¬ 
tions than the ehlorophyl theory affords. 

Attention is now called to that which will, no 
doubt, be accepted as the correct explanation of the 
way in which and the means whereby Energy is stored 
in plant substance, and, hence, in the food we eat. 



132 


HOW ENERGY IS STORED IN FOOD 


HOW ENERGY IS STORED IN FOOD. 

It has long been known; first, that carbon and hy¬ 
drogen are the combustible elements of organic mat¬ 
ter, and that these substances are presented to the 
growing plant in the form of oxygen compounds, the 
one as carbon dioxide gas, and the other as hydrogen 
oxide, or water; second, that the carbon dioxide is 
for the most part imbibed from the atmosphere by 
the leaves of the plant; third, that the water with the 
earthy matters afforded by the soil in solution, is 
taken up by the spongioles of the rootlets of the plant; 
fourth, that this earth-laden water is conveyed up¬ 
ward to the leaves of the plant, where the elements 
afforded by the soil are mingled with the carbon 
dioxide absorbed from the atmosphere; fifth, that 
these lifeless materials are here converted into living 
organic matter, and with the result of a complete loss 
of their identity; sixth, that the solar beams play an 
important part in this transformation. 

The avidity with which the leaves of a tree drink 
in carbon dioxide is referred to in Johnston’s Chem¬ 
istry of Common Life as follows: 

“The number and activity of the little mouths 
which stud the leaf are very wonderful. On a single 
square inch of the leaf of the common lilac as many 
as 120,000 have been counted; and the rapidity with 
which they act is so great, that a thin current of air 
passing over the leaves of an actively-growing plant is 
almost immediately deprived by them of the carbonic 
acid it contains.’’ 

Now, it may in truth and reason be said that the 



ORIGIN OF PROTOPLASM 


133 


growth of plants, comprehending the conversion of 
inorganic materials into organic matter, depends 
upon two well-known forms of Energy—namely, the 
actinic energy, or Chemical Power of the solar 
beams, and the life-principle, or vital power of the 
tree or plant, as the case may be. 

In the transformation of the lifeless materials of 
the soil and atmosphere into living and life-sustaining 
organic matter, the solar radiations constitute the 
“power behind the throne,’’ so to speak, while the 
vital principle of the plant gives direction to the 
process, determining with unfailing certainty 
whether the materials brought together in the place 
and in the manner above described shall become the 
constituents of an oak, of a potato, of a grain of 
wheat, or of some other member of the vegetable 
kingdom. That is to say, the life-principle of any 
given tree or plant is invariably true to its own in¬ 
terests, turning everything that comes within the 
range of its demands and of its grasp into the ma¬ 
terial of the plant of which it is the immaterial entity. 

ORIGINATION OF PROTOPLASM. 

The solar radiations perform in particular the 
all-important function of splitting the molecules of 
carbon dioxide and of hydrogen oxide into their re¬ 
spective elements, thus setting free the oxygen and 
delivering the carbon and hydrogen over to the plant 
to be used by it in the formation of plant plasma, the 
pabulum on which it (the plant) is to feed. These 
facts are graphically represented in Fig. 1, where it 



134 


HOW ENERGY IS STORED IN FOOD 


will be seen that the solar beams have succeeded in 
splitting apart tw 7 o molecules, the one being carbon 
dioxide, and the other hydrogen oxide, and in casting 
the oxygen atoms of both back into the atmosphere, 
while the carbon and hydrogen are left in possession 
of the plant. The first of these facts is expressed by 



the dotted lines leading upward to the circles inclos¬ 
ing the letter O, the symbol of oxygen, while the 
other is represented by the dark circles on the face 
of the leaf inclosing the letters C, and H, the symbols 
of carbon and hydrogen. In no case is all the hydro¬ 
gen oxide (water), of the sap thus broken up, and 
hence, analysis has seemed to indicate that oxygen is 
a constituent of plant substance when it is not. That 





PHOTOLYTIC DISSOCIATION 


135 


is to say, the oxygen thus found forms a part not of 
the plant, but of the water that happens to be in the 
plant. The breaking-up of these oxygen compounds, 
comprehending the divorcement of the carbon and 
hydrogen from the oxygen with which they are as¬ 
sociated, is brought about by the superior chemism, 
or chemical energy of the solar beams, the more pow¬ 
erful being, here as elsewhere, able to dispossess and 
thrust aside the weaker agent, chemical affinity. It 
may well be supposed that the work of the solar beams 
is accomplished, here as well as in photography, in a 
fleeting moment and repeated again and again as the 
moments come and go, and with the effect of deliver¬ 
ing to the plant a continuous stream, as it were, of 
the materials from which to build up its every struc¬ 
ture and evolve its every attribute. 

The doctrine of photolytic dissociation thus briefly 
outlined was worked out by the writer and put in 
print more than ten years ago. A fine example of 
what may be called incidental, though indirect, cor¬ 
roboration of this hypothesis was referred to in an 
Editorial which appeared in the Scientific American 
under date of October 17, 1908. The said Editorial 
was finely illustrated, showing by means of half-tone 
engravings that the upper surface of the leaves of 
plants is made up of lens-shaped cells, and that these 
“lens-cells” have the effect of focusing the solar ra¬ 
diations, the focal point being between the upper and 
lower surfaces of the leaf. Below will be found the 
entire editorial and one out of the twelve illustrations 
given therewith. 




136 


HOW ENERGY IS STORED IN FOOD 


“THE EYES OF plants/' 

“In our issue of September 12 we published an 
article by Dr. D. T. Macdougal, director of the De¬ 
partment of Botanical Research of the Carnegie In¬ 
stitution, in which he showed that plants are so sensi¬ 
tive to light that we may well raise the question 
whether they do not actually see. He showed that if 
response to light stimulation by appropriate move¬ 
ments is equivalent to seeing, then plants certainly 
see. Even if nothing short of the formation and ap¬ 
prehension of a definite range of external objects may 
properly be designated as sight, the plant world may 
not be regarded as totally blind. While Dr. Macdou- 
gal’s article was on the press, Mr. Harold Wager was 
reading a paper before the British Association for 
the Advancement of Science, in which were de¬ 
scribed experiments he and other biologists had con¬ 
ducted for the purpose of showing how much a plant 
really can see. 

“He exhibited photographs taken through the epi¬ 
dermal cells of the leaves of plants. The upper and 
lower surfaces of leaves are covered by a thin trans¬ 
parent skin, which can, in many cases, be very easily 
peeled off. When examined under the microscope, 
as Dr. Macdougal showed in his article and as Mr. 
Wager reiterates, this skin is seen to consist of in¬ 
numerable compartments or cells, many thousands of 
which are found on a single leaf. They contain a 
clear watery sap, and their shape is such that they 
behave like ordinary convex or plano-convex lenses, 
the rays of light which fall upon them being con¬ 
verged and brought to a focus in the substance of the 
leaf. According to Prof. Haberlandt, a German 
botanist, these cells enable the plant to perceive the 





THE EYES OF PLANTS 


137 


difference between light and dark, and set up a stim¬ 
ulus which results in the movement of the leaf into 
such a position that it can obtain the maximum 
amount of light; or it may be, as Mr. Wager is in¬ 
clined to think, that these cells serve for the more 
efficient illumination of the green grains within the 
leaf upon which the effective food-supply of the plant 
depends. Possibly both play some part in aiding the 
leaf to perform its work more efficiently. These cells 
are found in practically all plants; but are most 
clearly seen in some shade plants. Prof. Haberlandt 
was able in one case to photograph a faint image of a 
microscope through the cells, and Mr. Wager has 
more recently obtained photographs of various ob¬ 
jects some of which are here reproduced. In many 
cases these lens-cells may be compared with the cor¬ 
neal facets of an insect’s eye, so far as their general 
appearance and power of causing a convergence 5 of 
light are concerned. In addition to ordinary methods 
of photography, it has been found possible to obtain 
photographs of simple patterns in colors by means of 
the autochrome plates of Messrs. Lumiere. In taking 
these photographs, whether in the ordinary way or 
in colors, the images formed by the leaf cells are mag¬ 
nified by the microscope from 100 to 400 or more 
diameters, and the photographs are obtained by an 
ordinary photo-micrographic apparatus; but the best 
results have been obtained with the Gordon photo¬ 
micrographic apparatus. It is not suggested that 
the plant can perceive the images which are thus 
photographed, but the fact that such images can be 
formed shows that these cells are very efficient lenses, 
and by means of them the plant may be enabled to 
take more advantage of the light which falls upon it 
than it would otherwise be able to do.”—By permis¬ 
sion of Munn & Co.,publishers of Scientific American. 





138 


HOW ENERGY IS STORED IN FOOD 


If the reader will kindly re-read the 
writer’s explanation of the breaking up 
of the molecules of carbon dioxide and 
hydrogen oxide and note the fact de¬ 
picted in the subjoined engraving that 
the solar beams are brought to a focus 
between the upper and lower surfaces 
of the leaf, he will readily perceive that 
the lens-shaped cells described by Mr. 
Harold Wager have a far more impor¬ 
tant function than that of seeing— 
namely, the intensification of the power 
of the solar beam in its action upon the 
above named molecules. In short, the facts brought 
out by Mr. Wager and his reviewer, the Editor of the 
Scientific American, are highly corroborative of the 
writer’s idea of the sun’s action in plant growth, as 
above remarked. 

And let it be carefully noted in passing, that 
plants as well as animals, feed upon organic matter, 
the current opinion to the contrary notwithstanding. 
The explanation above given, makes it perfectly evi¬ 
dently, if I may say it, that the formation of plant 
plasma takes place in the leaves of the plant, while it 
is an obvious and well-known fact that this operation 
antedates that process of accretion, or laying-on-of- 
substance, which is effected during the return or 
downward flow of the sap, this appropriation of ma¬ 
terial being the only occurrence that can justly be 
said to constitute the act of feeding. 

The fact has now been brought to light, if never 



Fig. 2 


"Diagram show¬ 
ing the way in 
which the light 
rays pass thru 
the cells of the 
leaf, and are 
brought to a 
focus." 







DIVORCEMENT OF CARBON 


139 


before, that in the growth of plant substance carbon 
and hydrogen are wrested from the embrace of oxy¬ 
gen and that this is attributable, to the superior 
potency of the solar beams. In other words, it has 
been shown that those elements which had been united 
by the lower court, of chemical affinity, are divorced, 
or forced assunder, by the higher court of solar 
chcmism . It may be said, therefore; first, that plant 
substance is built up by the energy of chemical sepa¬ 
ration , or, more properly, photolytic dissociation; 
second, that it is broken down by the energy of chem¬ 
ical union, and with the result of a corresponding, or 
proportionate display of energy-phenomena—heat, or 
light, or vital power; third, that the energy expended 
in the one process finds its exact equivalent in that 
developed by the other, as both reason and the 61 Doc¬ 
trine of the Conservation of Energy’’ demand. 

STABILITY OF ORGANIC MATTER EXPLAINED. 

The carbon and hydrogen elements which have en¬ 
tered into the organic compact, or become part of 
the plant, are temporarily held aloof, as it were, from 
their former companion, oxygen. So long as the tree 
or plant continues to live and grow a reunion of the 
elements in question is impossible, and for the ob¬ 
vious reason that the stability of the plant substance 
stands like a wall of separation between them, the 
oxygen being on the one side and the carbon and 
hydrogen on the other, as it were. But the death of 
the plant and the agents of decay will, sooner or later, 
break down this barrier, thus furnishing the oppor- 



140 


HOW ENERGY IS STORED IN FOOD 


tunity for the previously divorced oxygen to rush in 
and reclaim its own, so to speak. For example, when¬ 
ever a match is applied to a splinter of dry wood, the 
said wall of partition is broken down, whereupon the 
triad of chemical agents in question,—the oxygen of 
the air, and the carbon and hydrogen of the organic 
substance—will rush into mutual embrace, and with 
a vehemence which will equal the sum of the ener¬ 
gies—solar and vital—which had been expended (in 
the event of plant growth) for the purpose of effect¬ 
ing their separation, as above explained. The same 
is true of the less energetic forms of disintegration, 
such as the rotting of fruits and the putrefaction of 
flesh, but the resulting energy-phenomena are, as a 
rule far less apparent. In the former case, (the wood 
being densely organized, involving a large percentage 
of carbon and hydrogen), the energy-phenomena fol¬ 
lowing the application of the match are of the more 
intense and impressive forms that we call heat and in¬ 
candescence. In the latter case, the energy-phenom¬ 
ena are, as a rule, so feeble and so promptly dissi¬ 
pated that they are scarcely appreciable to the senses. 
It is true, nevertheless, that these processes differ in 
degree only, not in kind. 

As calorifacients, or heat-generators, carbon and 
hydrogen are practically unrivaled in all nature, the 
only exceptions of importance being the solar radia¬ 
tions and their foremost dependency, electrical 
energy. In a word, it is well known that carbon and 
hydrogen are the sources of nearly all the artificial 
heat and light that we see in the world. The more 



THE VERSATILITY OF CARBON 


141 


important of these two substances is carbon—a prop¬ 
osition which finds support in many well known facts 
not the least of which are the parts that it plays in the 
industrial and commercial enterprises, serving as 
fuels, as lubricants, as the best of all abrasives, as the 
only dependence in glass cutting, as the essential of 
electrical illumination, and as the most precious of all 
gems. Its adaptability to vital uses resides in its 
ability to assume any one or all of the physical prop¬ 
erties of matter—solid, liquid and gaseous,—existing 
at one time in the form of the carbon of plant sub¬ 
stance, at another time in the form of the liquid pep¬ 
tones, at another in the shape of red blood corpuscles, 
and at still another time in the shape of “ carbonic 
acid gas,” or, in modern chemical parlance, carbon 
dioxide. 

By reason of this versatility of character, if this 
form of expression be at all allowable, carbon is 
capable not only of taking part in the formation of 
the various vegetable and animal structures, but of 
imparting life and activity to all living creatures, as 
the sequel will show. 

Nor can it be very far amiss to indulge at this 
juncture in the further preliminary of again calling 
attention to the fact that the greatest need that the 
medical world has ever experienced, is a definite 
knowledge of that power or endowment to which the 
terms vim, vigor and vitality and the prowess of the 
vigorous naturally refer—the power that causes the 
muscles to contract. 

The physiologists of modern times are well aware 



142 


HOW ENERGY IS STORED IN FOOD 


of this, but they have not been able, it appears, to find 
out what this important factor is. Regarding this 
matter there is much speculation but no genuine in¬ 
formation. Some authorities have contented them¬ 
selves with the statement that muscles are endowed 
with the property of contractility. Others have in¬ 
sisted that nervous energy is the power that sets the 
vital machinery in motion, but every attempt to es¬ 
tablish their contention belongs in the category of the 
manifestly inadequate. 

To this must be added the more generally accepted 
yet decidedly hazy doctrine that the muscular tissues 
are oxidized or decomposed in the development of 
muscular power and that they are rebuilt from food. 
To challenge the advocates of this doctrine to present 
in support of their contention so much as a single 
logical argument is but to put them to flight, for it 
is not only true that this has never been done, but that 
it is an actual if not a manifest impossibility. 

On the other hand, it is a perfectly discernible fact 
that the muscles possess an endowment which is for¬ 
eign to or independent of the nerves—that the nerves 
are no more able to act directly upon the osseous 
structures, or upon the muscular tissues than they are 
upon the handle of a hammer or the crank of a 
windlass. 

It is well-known that the nerves originate in the 
brain and nervous centers; that thej^ penetrate the 
muscles and that these structures are brought into 
action in response to the mandates of the will or of 
the automatic nervous centers, as the case may be— 



FUNDAMENTAL PROPOSITIONS 


143 


facts which involve beyond all peradventure the im¬ 
plication that the muscles possess a form of energy of 
their own; that this power is derived from the food 
and may be likened unto the potential energy of a 
charge of gun powder; that the nerve tract may be 
deemed the counterpart of the electric conductor and 
that the will may be likened unto the man who com¬ 
pletes the electric circuit when the explosion of the 
powder-charge is to be effected. 

FUNDAMENTAL PROPOSITIONS. 

An attempt will now be made not only to prove 
that the muscles do actually possess a power of their 
own, but to make good the contention by pointing out 
its nature, origin, dynamic equivalent and modus 
operandi. 

It is proposed to establish the truth of the follow¬ 
ing propositions: 

1. That every living creature, whether man, or 
beast, or fish, or bird, or creeping thing, owes its every 
movement, whether feeble or powerful, to a certain 
form of Energy which has long been extensively em¬ 
ployed in all civilized lands as a motive power. 

2. That the material from which this Energy is 
developed is well-known in all well-informed circles, 
if not to the entire civilized world as a constituent 
of all food substances. 

3. That the Vegetable Kingdom was ordained 
for the more especial purpose of gathering, refining 
and storing this material for vital uses. 




144 


HOW ENERGY IS STORED IN FOOD 


4. That the Nutritive Process consists, essen¬ 
tially speaking, in the preparation, transportation 
and deposition of this element in the tissues, ready 
to he called into the service of the body at any 
moment. 

In short, an attempt will now be made to point out 
the power that sets the vital machinery in motion, the 
way in which it operates and the rules by which it 
is governed. 

The energy here referred to is, strictly speaking, 
not that of chemical union, but an outcome of chemi¬ 
cal union. In other words, it is one of the results of 
the chemical union that takes place between two ele¬ 
ments, one of which is supplied by the food we eat 
and the other by the air we breathe—namely, carbon 
and oxygen. 

The agency thus referred to is both well-known 
tod wholly unknown to the scientific world—well- 
known as a source of power outside of the living or¬ 
ganism, but wholly unknown as the power that sets 
the various members of the vast domain of animated 
nature in motion. 

Notwithstanding the fact that this form of energy 
is generally recognized as not the least valuable of the 
various potentialities that nature has entrusted to 
human hands, serving as the most available of all 
means for the destruction of invading armies and 
mountain barriers, it has so happened that the lead¬ 
ers of scientific research have never discovered, nor 
even suspected, that it is the power that imparts life 
and activity to every living creature, whether man, 



THE YITOMOTIVE-POWER 


146 


or beast, or bird, or creeping thing. Nor can it be 
very far amiss to remark in passing that the failure 
of recognition here referred to finds ample extenua¬ 
tion in the extremely paradoxical circumstance that 
the agent in question is known to be the deadliest of 
all toxic agencies. 

A GREAT SECRET UNFOLDED. 

Having now indulged in a sufficiency of circum¬ 
locution to arouse the curiosity of the average reader, 
I now affirm that the Living Organism, or Vital Ma¬ 
chine, owes its every movement, whether feeble ot 
powerful, normal or abnormal, to the expansive 
energy of carbon dioxide. It is needless to say that 
this gas is evolved in the disintegration of all kinds 
of organic matter, vegetable and animal, and that it 
possesses, as its maximum efficiency, the enormous 
dynamic equivalent of forty atmospheres, or six hun¬ 
dred pounds to the square inch; for these facts were 
brought out and recorded more than eighty years ago 
(1823) , by the eminent English and French scientists, 
Faraday and Thilorier. These investigators found, 
it will be remembered, that it required a pressure of 
40 atmospheres to reduce carbonic acid gas to the 
liquid state. And since this is true it follows that 
the converse must also be true—namely, that if this 
gas be produced from any substance, solid or liquid, 
it will exert, by means of its disposition to expand, a 
corresponding measure of energy. 

For these and other reasons yet to be named, the 
writer does not hesitate to assert that the expansive 



146 


HOW ENERGY IS STORED IN FOOD 


ENERGY OF CARBON DIOXIDE GAS is at the bottom of the 
physical activities of the entire vital domain, and is 
therefore entitled to some such name as the Vito- 
motive-Power. Another evidence of the fact (which 
will completely round out the testimony) is involved 
in the showing, soon to he made, that the muscles are 
so constructed that the generation of this gas within 
their elemental cells will compel them to contract, the 
entire argument constituting a highly logical ex¬ 
planation of the supposedly inexplicable phenomenon 
of muscular contraction. 

Inasmuch as carbon dioxide gas is so very destruc¬ 
tive to life that the very thought of it brings vividly 
to memory the horrors of the “ Black Hole of Cal¬ 
cutta,’ ’ to say nothing of the difficulty that is neces¬ 
sarily involved in the grasping of so paradoxical an 
idea as that this gas should be both productive of and 
destructive to life, we cannot wonder that the lead¬ 
ers of the scientific world have failed to perceive that 
it is the power that sets the vital machinery in motion. 
Nor is this all that may be said in extenuation of the 
failure of investigators to arrive at a knowledge of 
this important truth. For its action or mode of im¬ 
pingement upon the working parts of the vital ma¬ 
chine involves another and no less surprising para¬ 
dox, as the sequel wfill show. 



CHAPTER V. 


MYO-MECHANICS AND MYO-DYNAMICS, OR PRINCIPLES 
INVOLVED IN THE CONSTRUCTION, AND PROPUL¬ 
SION OF THE VITAL MACHINE. 

A New Vital Philosophy—solving the Unsolved 
Problems of Biology, Physiology and Vital 
Dynamics, or of Nutrition, Nerve-Action, Mus¬ 
cular Contraction and Locomotion, by showing 
how Food-Energy is Transformed into the 
VITOMOTIVE-POWER, Or MUSCULAR ENERGY; from 
what Element of the Food it is derived; how it 
is Called into being; how it sets the Vital Ma¬ 
chinery in Motion and by what rules or Laws it 
is Governed. 

Life is a display of the Vital Energies. Disease is 
a decline of the Vital Energies. Death is a complete 
negation of all Vital Energies and Properties. The 
passing of the Human Body from the first of these ex¬ 
tremes to the other, be it slow, rapid or sudden, in¬ 
volves a problem of surpassing importance. Nor can 
such a problem be solved without first unraveling 
those which are wrapped up in the phenomena of the 
normal man. As stated in a preceding paragraph, it 
is a self-evident proposition that: If we would find 
out how the vital energies and structures are im¬ 
paired and destroyed , as they are in disease, we must 
first find out how the former are obtained and how 
the latter are preserved , as they are in health. And 
this is equivalent to saying that, if we would accom¬ 
plish such a purpose, we must push our investigations 

147 


148 


THE NEW VITAL PHILOSOPHY 


from the domain of the phenomenal into that of the 
fundamental —from the realm of facts and occur¬ 
rences, into that of actuating energies and ruling 

PRINCIPLES. 

For the sake of emphasizing an important point I 
again affirm that the solution of the problems of life, 
normal and abnormal, depends upon the discovery of 
the power or form of energy that bears the same re¬ 
lation to vital phenomena that Gravitation does to 
physical phenomena, and the same that Chemical 
Affinity does to chemical phenomena. That is to say, 
if we would solve the riddles of Yitomotive Phenom¬ 
ena, normal and abnormal, we must obtain a definite 
knowledge of the power or form of energy on which 
the activities of life chiefly depend —namely, the 
Power that sets the vital machinery in Motion, by 
causing the Muscles to Contract. For the same rea¬ 
son I would also repeat that the correctness of this 
proposition is evinced by the undeniable fact that 
muscular energy is the dominant principle of the 
Vital Domain, being regnant in all vital operations, 
whether instinctive or volitional, feeble or powerful, 
normal or abnormal—a regnancy which justifies the 
inference, as already remarked, that the ego, or in¬ 
herent life principle, plus the vito-motive-power and 
its auxiliary agencies, nervous, mental and thermal, 
is Life , and that the rules that obtain in the develop¬ 
ment and performance of these agencies, are the Laws 
of IAfe. 

The proposition advanced in the preceding chap¬ 
ter, that the living organism is actuated by the Ex- 



THE FUNCTION OF CARBON DIOXIDE 


149 


pansive Power of Carbon Dioxide Gas, would have 
little if any weight in the absence of satisfactory evi¬ 
dence that the vital machinery is so constructed that 
it may be set in motion by the expansion of its ele¬ 
mental cells; that carbon dioxide is developed within 
these cells from nutrient matter previously stored 
therein and that this is done in answer to the man¬ 
dates of the will, or of the vital instincts, as the case 
may be. 

If all this can be done, however, and so that the 
various facts and phenomena of life shall be fairly 
and consistently accounted for, and so, also, that 
every explanation of the series shall be not only per¬ 
fectly harmonious within itself, but in perfect accord 
with the various principles and precepts of estab¬ 
lished science, my theory of muscular construction 
and action, and, hence, of locomotion, will be so com¬ 
pletely rounded out that it will appeal as strongly to 
the scientific mind as the fundamental postulates of 
the physical and chemical sciences have done. 

But before attempting to do this attention is called 
to what may be termed incidental evidences of the 
truth of the proposition already advanced. 

INCIDENTAL EVIDENCES. 

That carbon dioxide is at the bottom of vitomotivc 
phenomena is a proposition which finds much support 
to begin with in six well-known facts; (1), that car¬ 
bon is the most abundant constituent of water-free 
foods; (2), that carbon dioxide evinces its capability 
by possessing as its maximum efficiency a Dynamic 



150 


THE NEW VITAL PHILOSOPHY 


Equivalent of 40 atmospheres; (3), that carbon di¬ 
oxide is the burden of every outgoing breath and of 
all cutaneous transpiration; (4), that the amount 
thus discharged increases in exact ratio to the in¬ 
creasing activity of the individual, the output in cases 
of extreme exertion being about ten times greater 
than it is in those of moderate activity; (5), that 
carbon dioxide is the most important of all contribu¬ 
tors to plant growth—every such contribution de¬ 
pending, as is well known, upon the breaking-up of 
this carbon compound, and this in turn, as I have 
shown, upon the superior potency of the solar beams, 
the more powerful being able to dispossess and thrust 
aside the weaker agent, chemical affinity, as stated in 
a preceding paragraph; (6), that the oxygen thus 
liberated returns to the circumambient atmosphere, 
while the carbon enters the organic compact, as the 
most important constituent of plant plasma, the ma¬ 
terial from which the plant is to build up its every 
part and evolve its every attribute. Let it not be for¬ 
gotten that plants are the laboratories in which 
Nature effects the separation of those elements— 
carbon and oxygen—from whose reunion within the 
cells of the living organism must come all the ener¬ 
gies, physical, nervous and thermal, of the domain of 
animated nature. 

Attention is now called to the mechanism the 
movements of which I am endeavoring to explain. 

THE HUMAN BODY. 

The Human Body is composed, roughly speaking, 
of: (1), an articulated bony frame-work called the 



THE OSSEOUS SYSTEM 


151 


skeleton; (2), a complex and ingeniously constructed 
system of propelling devices called muscles; (3), an 
extremely complicated and delicately constructed sys¬ 
tem of communication, the counterpart of the most 
elaborate telegraph system of modern times—namely, 
the nervous system; (4), a veritable hydraulic ma¬ 
chine, with its pump, valves and pipes, comprising 
four distinct classes of tubular structures which 
serve, on the one hand, as purveyors of nutrition, 
and on the other, as first aids to elimination—namely 
arteries, veins, capillaries and lymphatics; (5), a 
system of emunctories or outlets for the waste 
products, the bowels, the liver, the kidneys, the lungs 
and the glands of the skin; (6), the very complex 
combination of bones, muscles, nerves, capillaries, 
tubes and cells, called the respiratory system; (7), a 
combination of tubes and cavities, commonly called 
the hollow viscera, comprising the alimentary canal, 
or digestive tract; (8), a small but indispensable 
system of structures which has reference to the per¬ 
petuation of the species, commonly called the 
reproductives. 

Having refreshed the reader’s memory regarding 
its details, I shall now undertake to prove that the 
Living Organism owes its every movement, normal 
and abnormal, to the expansive power of carbon 
dioxide gas —the power that sends the “ Horseless 
Carriage” in triumphant elegance along the high¬ 
ways of civilization, nature having done in the begin¬ 
ning what man has but recently begun to do. 



152 


THE NEW VITAL PHILOSOPHY 


INTRA-CELL IJLAR EXPLOSIONS. 

In the first place, it is a fact worthy of careful at¬ 
tention that every time a muscle contracts it gives us 
two hints to this effect and in the shape of a shock 
and a sound, the one hint being visible while the other 
is hearable. In other words, the shocks and detona¬ 
tions which were noticed a long while ago by several 
investigators are unmistakable evidences of the truth 
of my contention, that muscular contraction is refer¬ 
able to explosions occurring in the cells—a claim 
which will be fully substantiated in the progress of 
this work. 

Professor E. J. Marey, of the College of France, 
referred to these shocks and detonations at consider¬ 
able length in his work on Animal Mechanism, pub¬ 
lished in 1874. His remarks with regard thereto are 
in part as follows: 

“Of the contraction of the muscle . Hitherto, we 
have applied to the nerve only one single excitation, 
to which one single motion responded, the muscular 
shock . Notwithstanding its brevity, this shock has 
an appreciable duration; in man it takes 8 or 10 
hundredths of a second for the muscle to accomplish 
its contraction; then a longer time for it to resume its 
normal length; after which, if it receives a new order 
from a nerve, it gives a fresh shock. But if the ex- 
eitations of the nerve succeed each other at such short 
intervals that the muscle has not time to accomplish 
the first shock before it receives a second, a special 
phenomenon is produced; these movements are con¬ 
founded and absorbed into a state of permanent con- 



\ 


THE MUSCULAR SHOCKS 153 


traction, which lasts as long as the excitations go on 
succeeding each other at short intervals. 

“Thus the shock is only the elementary act in the 
function of the muscle; it plays therein, after a 
fashion, the same part as a sonorous vibration plays 
in the complex phenomenon which constitutes sound. 
When the will ordains a muscular contraction, the 
nerve excites in the muscle a series of shocks which 
follow one another so closely that the first has not 
time to end before a second begins, so that these ele¬ 
mentary movements combine together and coalesce 
to produce the contraction. * * * Helmholtz 

perceived that the muscle vibrates in the depths of 
its tissue under these conditions of contraction, be¬ 
cause the ear applied to this muscle hears a sound 
whose acuteness is exactly determined by the number 
of the electric excitations sent to the muscle in a 
second. 

“By means of a very sensitive myograph, we have 
been able to render visible the vibrations of the mus¬ 
cles under the influence of tetanus-producing shocks. 
* * * >> 

After referring to the “fusion of shocks”; to the 
attending contraction of the muscle and to the record 
made by the myograph, Prof. Marey proceeds as 
follows: 

“In short, these voluntary contractions seem to 
be only a series of shocks, combining together by the 
rapidity of their succession. 

“It has long been known that by applying the ear 
to a muscle in a state of voluntary contraction, we can 
hear a grave sound, whose tone several authors have 
sought to determine. Wollaston, Houghton, and Dr. 
Collongue are almost agreed upon this tone, which 
would correspond to a frequency of 32 or 35 vibra- 



154 


THE NEW VITAL PHILOSOPHY 


tions per second. Helmholtz thinks that this tone of 
32 vibrations per second is the normal sound given 
out by the muscle in contraction, and according to his 
experiments in electric tetanization, he regards this 
number as the minimum necessary to produce the 
state of apparent immobility of the electrically tetan- 
ized muscle. 

44 If voluntary contraction, studied with the aid of 
the myograph, furnishes no trace of vibrations, we 
must not be surprised, since the essential character 
of that act consists in the coalescence of shocks. But 
the existence of the sound which accompanies the con¬ 
traction of the muscle sufficiently proves the com¬ 
plexity of this phenomenon. Let us add another 
proof in favor of this theory. When a muscle re¬ 
ceives excitations of equal intensity, the contraction 
which results from them is all the stronger in propor¬ 
tion to their frequency. Now, in contracting the 
muscles of the jaws with more or less force, we have 
been able to convince ourselves that the acuteness of 
the muscular sound increased with the energy of the 
effort. We may thus obtain variations of a fifth in 
the tone of the muscular soimd. * * * 

4 4 The conclusion at which we have arrived, is, that 
during voluntary contraction, the motor nerves are 
the seat of successive acts, each of which produces 
an excitation of the muscle. The latter, in its turn, 
causes a series of acts, each of which gives birth to a 
muscular wave producing a shock. It is in the 
elasticity of the muscle that we must seek for the 
cause of the coalescence of these multiplied shocks; 
they are extinguished just as the jerks of the piston 
of a fire-engine disappear in the elasticity of its res¬ 
ervoir of air.”—From 44 Animal Mechanism,” pages 
45, 46, and 47, Edition of 1874, by permission of the 
publishers, D. Appleton and Company, New York. 




THE MUSCULAR SOUND EXPLAINED. 


155 


It is an incontestible proposition that the succes¬ 
sion of shocks and sounds referred to but not ex¬ 
plained by Marey and his fellow investigators, indi¬ 
cate that the vital machine is propelled by the same 
form of energy that sets the modern “Motor Car” in 
motion—namely, carbon dioxide gas. In the progress 
of this work it will be made too plain to admit of any 
hope of successful disputation, if I may say it, that 
this gas produces both the “detonations” referred to 
in the foregoing quotations, and the ‘ 4 muscular 
wave” described and illustrated by the same author. 
Further on Prof. Marey’s description and drawing 
will be reproduced and accompanied by what I hold to 
be a perfectly reliable explanation, showing in a most 
lucid and effectual way that the detonations are re¬ 
ferable to explosions taking place in the cells; that 
these explosions are referable to the sudden oxidation 
of the nutrient matter previously stored in the cellu¬ 
lar elements of the muscle, and that the muscular 
wave flowing from one end of the fibril to the other is 
the effect produced by successive explosions and ex¬ 
pansions beginning at the proximal and terminating 
at the distal extremity of the fibril. It will then be 
perfectly apparent that the ingenuity displayed in 
art is decidedly inferior to that displayed in nature— 
that while the automobile makers have succeeded in 
devising no greater combination than that of a 
twenty-four cylinder engine, nature has devised com¬ 
binations embracing hundreds and thousands of cyl¬ 
inders, every one of the cells composing a muscle 
being the mechanical counterpart of an automobile 
cylinder. 



156 


THE NEW VITAL PHILOSOPHY 


Attention is now invited to the various facts, 
processes and principles involved in the construction, 
nutrition, action and renovation of the muscles, be¬ 
ginning with those which are subject to the mandates 
of the will. 

THE FASCIA AND THE ELEMENTAL CELLS. 

There are in every muscle two contrivances on 
which its performance as a propelling device depends 
—namely, the fascia, or so-called “ investing mem¬ 
brane/ ’ and the elemental cells or smallest compon-. 
ents thereof. The elemental cells correspond to the 
“dark striae” of the muscular fibrils. The fibrillae, 
of the voluntary muscles, when viewed by the aid of 
the microscope, appear, it will be remembered, like 
strands of red-colored beads. These bead-like subdi¬ 
visions are separated from one another by what ap¬ 
pears to be a thin, translucent disk, which is called 
the light striation. Each dark striation, or bead-like 
subdivision, of the volitional fibril is a hollow, trans¬ 
lucent, oval-shaped and transversely elastic cell, or 
cavity, whose primary purpose is the storage of en- 
ergy-producing material, or nutrient matter—that 
mechanical comminglement of a combustible with a 
supporter of combustion—of food and oxygen— 
which is called arterial blood. 

The narrow translucent striation of the fibril has 
been termed the “Membrane of Kraus” in honor of 
the man who first pointed it out and who made the 
mistake of regarding it as a membrane, when it is in 
reality the wall of partition between contiguous cells. 





THE ELEMENTAL CELLS 


157 


Because of the transparency of the cell, the nu¬ 
trient matter contained therein is visible after the 
manner of a colored fluid in a transparent glass bot¬ 
tle, the aggregate effect being the red appearance of 
lean meat. The construction of the fibril may be 
fairly represented by a number of cylindrical pill¬ 
boxes placed in a row, end to end, the tops and bot¬ 
toms in contact representing the septa, or partitions 
between the cells, while the inside of each box repre¬ 
sents a single cell, or nutrient cavity. In other words, 
each dark stripe is at once a food depository and an 
energy-generating laboratory. 

CELLULAR MECHANICS. 

Figure 3 illustrates both what the microscope 
shows to be the form of the cells composing the voli¬ 
tional muscles, and what I conceive to be the way in 
which the walls thereof are constructed, c being the 
cell-wall, consisting of a longitudinally-extended net¬ 
work of extremely delicate and therefore invisible 
filaments, while a a are the septa, or partitions be¬ 
tween the cells. 

It will be seen upon a careful consideration of the 
mode of construction here presented and of the 
previously expressed propo¬ 
sition, that muscular con¬ 
traction is produced by the 
expansive power of carbon 
dioxide gas, that whenever 
this gas is generated within 
the cell it (the cell) will of necessity expand trans- 



Flg. 3. Fig. 4. 



158 


THE NEW VITAL PHILOSOPHY 


versely and become shorter—the cell undergoing 
changes similar to those that take place in the muscle 
of which it forms an integral part, the form finally 
assumed by the cell being that depicted in Fig. 4. 

A careful study of the changes that take place in 
the cells, and illustrated by the discrepancy between 
Figs. 3 and 4, and those that take place in the entire 
muscle, as depicted in Figs. 5 and 6, will make it 
perfectly evident that this mode of construction se¬ 



cures both speedy action and the utmost economy— 
the instantaneous production of a maximum of mo¬ 
tion in consequence of the expenditure of a minimum 









CELLULAR CONSTRUCTION 


159 


of the actuating agent—namely, expanding carbon 
dioxide gas. 

The polar extremities, or ends, of the cells are ce¬ 
mented together, as it were, a great number of cells 
thus united forming a fibril. This fibrillar structure 
has been called the 44 ultimate element’’ of a muscle, 
but the fact is, that the cells are the ultimate elements 
thereof. 


THE SPINDLE-SHAPED CELLS. 

All muscles which are under the control of the 
subconscious mind, or vital instincts, save those com¬ 
posing the heart, are spindle-shaped and may there¬ 
fore be said to be constructed with special refer¬ 
ence to the work that they have to perform—that is, 
with the view of producing what is called peristaltic 
action—that slow, rhythmical, worm-like movement 
which is constantly going on in the alimentary tract, 
being slow enough to favor absorption of the nutri¬ 
ment and yet sufficiently urgent (in normal circum¬ 
stances) to bring about a timely ejectment, per rec¬ 
tum, of the non-usable residue. That is to say, the 
cells composing the muscles of organic life are con¬ 
structed on a principle which is both similar and dis¬ 
similar to the foregoing—similar, in that the walls 
thereof are composed of a longitudinally extended 
net-work, and dissimilar, in that they (the cells) are 
very long and spindle-shaped. 

Attention is now invited to two drawings, which 
were copied from Dunham’s excellent work entitled 



160 


THE NEW VITAL PHILOSOPHY 


“ Normal Histology/' Fig. 7 repre¬ 
sents a spindle-shaped cell in a state 
of rest. Fig. 8 represents the same 
cell as it appears when in a state of 
contraction, its breadth having been 
increased at the expense, as it were, of 
a corresponding reduction of its 
length. 

A careful examination of these il¬ 
lustrations in the light of the prin¬ 
ciples, structural and propulsive, ad¬ 
vanced in the foregoing and the fol¬ 
lowing pages, will enable the reader to 
perceive that the two forms of cells 
now described are perfectly adapted 
to the performance of their respective 
duties—that the spindle-shaped cells 
are well calculated to produce the 
slow and gentle motion of the alimen¬ 
tary canal, and that the ovoid cells 
are equally well calculated to pro¬ 
duce the quick and powerful action 
that is required of the heart and 
voluntary muscles. That is to say, it 
will readily be perceived (1) that 
the transverse expansion of the spindle-shaped cell 
will reduce its length very gradually and to a very 
moderate extent, and (2) that the transverse expan¬ 
sion of the net-work composing the walls of the oval¬ 
shaped cells will have a vastly quicker and more 
powerful contractile effect. In short, a careful ex¬ 
amination of my theory of cellular construction in 
the light of the principles set forth in the foregoing 


Fig. 7. 












SCHEMA PHYSIOLOGIA 


161 


and the following pages, will not only convince the 
reader that it is entirely logical, but enable him to 
appreciate more fully than ever before the wisdom of 



the Great Architect that framed the living organism 
and provided for its manifold activities. 

MUSCULAR NUTRITION EXPLAINED. 

Attention is now invited to Figure 9, which is 
upon the whole a schematic representation of the va- 














162 


THE NEW VITAL PHILOSOPHY 


rious facts, structures, principles and processes on 
which the vital activities chiefly depend. That is to 
say, in this illustration the various organs are ar¬ 
ranged, not as they are in the body, but in such a 
manner as to enable the student to see at a glance the 
principal details of the nutritive mechanism and of 
the functions that it performs—the digestion of the 
food; the absorption of the digested material; the 
oxygenation of this material, or incorporation there¬ 
with of oxygen; the circulation of the blood; the con¬ 
summation of the nutritive process, or passage of 
food into the cells, and the elimination of the waste 
matters previously formed in the cells,—thus illus¬ 
trating by means of a single engraving, the many 
facts and processes that obtain between the eating of 
the food and the discharging of the waste, or ash, that 
is left in the vital retort after the food has yielded up 
its fund of energies, muscular and thermal. 

The various structures upon which the perform¬ 
ance of these all-important functions depends are 
with a single exception designated by the numerals 
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. The structure just referred to 
as being excepted, or not included in the enumeration, 
is the fibril depicted on the right margin of the figure. 
The cells composing this fibril, constituting the nu¬ 
trient cavities, or food depositories, are indicated by 
the Roman numerals I, II, III, IV. 

The functions performed by the former class of 
structures, beginning at the top of the figure and tak¬ 
ing them in order of their action, are: 1. Ingestion 
of food. 2. Digestion of the food. 3. Neutraliza- 




NUTRITION AND ELIMINATION 


163 


tion of acids and emulsification of fats. 4. Absorp¬ 
tion of the chyle. 5. Cardiac propulsion of the 
blood. 6. Arterialization, or oxygenation, of the 
blood. 7. Arterial transportation of the blood. 8. 
Nutrition, or the filling of the cells with food and 
oxygen. 9. Elimination of the waste matters that 
are formed in the cells. 

The filling of the above described cells with nu¬ 
trient matter—arterial blood—is the culminating 
event of that much discussed but thus far unex¬ 
plained process which is called nutrition. The way 
in which nutrition is effected is after all a very simple 
matter, as will be seen in consequence of a careful 
study of the facts and principles set forth in the fore¬ 
going illustration, Fig. 9. 

On the right margin of this figure there is de¬ 
picted a portion of a muscular fibril, consisting of 
four cells (which are indicated by the Roman nu¬ 
merals), and in connection therewith; first, the trunk 
and terminal fibres of the attending nerve (the chan¬ 
nels through which the mandates of the will are 
brought to bear upon the nutrient matter previously 
stored in the cells) ; second, the capillary by which 
the cells, or nutrient cavities, are supplied with nu¬ 
trient matter; third, the passage of the nutrient mat¬ 
ter (by osmosis) from the lumen of the capillary 
through the cell-wall and into the cell-cavity, which 
is shown by the ingoing arrow; fourth, the escape of 
the waste products previously formed in the cell, 
which is indicated by the outgoing arrow. 



164 


THE NEW VITAL PHILOSOPHY 


BIRTH-PLACE OF RED CORPUSCLES. 

By the way, my studies have led me to believe that 
the “blood-plates” are the matrices of the red cor¬ 
puscles, imbibing oxygen, or oxygen-laden hemo¬ 
globin, as a sponge does water; that this imbibition 
takes place in the pulmonary capillaries, and that the 
oxygen finds its way into these vessels while the in¬ 
generated carbon dioxide is being passed into the air 
cells and thence to the outer world—propositions 
which involve w 7 hat I believe to be a perfectly logical 
settlement of the much mooted question as to the 
“birth-place” of the red blood corpuscle, or haemo- 
cyte. For a long while it has been held that these 
corpuscles are produced in the “red marrow” of the 
osseous structures; but this doctrine has never ap¬ 
pealed to me as being so much as fairly acceptable. 
At any rate, I do not hesitate to affirm that the red 
corpuscles are moulded in the trabeculae of the 
lymph-nodes and oxygenated in the pulmonary capil¬ 
laries, as above stated. 

The corpuscles thus formed and endowed, consist¬ 
ing, as they certainly do, of a combustible substance 
(food) intimately associated with a “supporter of 
combustion” (oxygen), are the materials from which 
all the vital energies, physical, nervous and thermal 
are derived. 

The objects attained by the formation and oxy¬ 
genation of the red corpuscle is the segregation and 
intimate commingling of the requisite amounts of 
carbon (of the food) and oxygen (of the respired 




FUNCTION OF RED CORPUSCLES 


165 


air) to form a non-residual explosive compound— 
non-residual in the sense that there is just enough 
carbon and oxygen to form carbon dioxide gas —the 
Vitomotive-Power—and no more, the affinities of 
these elements being completely satisfied, chemically 
speaking; or, in other words, the carbon and oxygen 
exist in the fully elaborated nutrient matter (red cor¬ 
puscles) in the proportion of one atom of carbon to 
two of oxygen—the principal product of this com¬ 
bination being the familiar CO 2 , which finds expres¬ 
sion in the animation and propulsion of the vital ma¬ 
chine, as explained further on. 

In the consummation of the nutritive function, the 
oxygen-laden materials now described (red corpus¬ 
cles) are passed by osmosis (either in their entirety 
or after the comminution and the blending of their 
component elements), from the capillaries through 
the cell-walls and into the cell-cavity—the material 
thus stored in the cells imparting to the flesh a color 
proportionate to the size of its cells, red, as in the 
voluntary, and pink, as in the involuntary. The cells 
composing the nervous system are so very diminutive 
that they appear colorless, the want of color being 
due to the fact, if it be a fact, as I apprehend, that 
the nutrient matter stored therein is too highly at¬ 
tenuated to produce an appreciable color effect upon 
the retina of the eye. 

nature's sweet restorer. 

Lest an important matter should be lost sight of, 
let it be carefully noted in passing: First, that the 



166 


THE NEW VITAL PHILOSOPHY 


passage of the food with its quantum of oxygen into 
the cells is the final event of the nutritive process, 
while the passage of the waste matter out of the cells 
is the initial event of the eliminative process; Sec¬ 
ondly, that the replenishment and the depuration of 
the cells and axis-cylinders of the nerves are effected 
in a similar manner. 

It should also be carefully noted in passing; first, 
that underlying Nutrition, the most important of all 
vital processes, is that marvelously energetic physical 
process on which plant growth largely depends—that 
wondrously forceful transference of liquefied mate¬ 
rial from one cell or cavity to another by means of 
which the crude sap is borne upward step by step, or 
from cell to cell (and in spite of gravitation) from 
the rootlets to the top-most leaf of the tallest tree that 
ever grew—namely, osmosis; secondly, that as the 
day advances and its labors are prosecuted, the waste 
matters gradually accumulate in the cells (elimina¬ 
tion not being able to keep pace with waste produc¬ 
tion) thus displacing, or the rather, preventing the 
ingress of the requisite amount of nutriment, the ef¬ 
fect upon the sensorium being that of either weari¬ 
ness, or exhaustion, according to the extent of the said 
involvement; thirdly, that sleep, “natures sweet re¬ 
storer’ ’ now makes good its title by affording the 
requisite opportunity for the accumulated waste mat¬ 
ter to be exchanged for fresh supplies of the energy¬ 
dispensing materials—namely, food and oxygen. 

ELIMINATION EXPLAINED. 

The ingoing of the food, and the outgoing of the 
waste products, are necessarily simultaneous, and for 



INITIAL ELIMINATION 


1G7 


the obvious reason that two things cannot occupy the 
same space at the same moment of time. As the air 
must escape from the jug so that the water may enter 
it, so must the waste material pass out of the cell so 
that the nutrient matter can reach its destination, the 
interior of the cell. The waste products here re¬ 
ferred to are the resultants of the combustion of nu¬ 
trient matter within the cells—a fact which will be 
explained further on. On being discharged from the 
cells, as above described, the waste products are 
passed into the distal end of the subjacent capillary, 
and thence by the veins to the emunctories, and 
through these to the outer world. Under normal con¬ 
ditions, each of the last named structures collects and 
discharges that part of the said waste matter for 
whose elimination it was especially ordained, the skin 
disposing of the perspirable matter; the kidneys re¬ 
moving the renal matter; the lungs the carbon dioxide 
gas, and the bowels the ingenerated portion of the 
fecal matter. In another chapter it will be shown 
that the bile is formed by the liver from either sur¬ 
plus, or non-usable, materials—starch, lignin and 
cellulose. All other waste matter discharged by the 
body is produced in the power-generating furnaces 
—namely, the cells, muscular and nervous. 

It will be remembered that all of these waste prod¬ 
ucts, the CO 2 , not excepted, are soluble in the aque¬ 
ous element, or water, of the blood. As a matter of 
fact, water fulfills the quadruple purpose of dissolv¬ 
ing (by the aid of the digestive juices) and conveying 
the food to its destination in the nutritive cells, and 




168 


THE NEW VITAL PHILOSOPHY 


of dissolving and transporting the waste products of 
the body to the emunctories, and thence to the outet 
world. 

The cells imbibe nutriment in almost if not exact 
ratio, it may well be supposed, to the activity of the 
body, the freedom of the blood flow and the complete¬ 
ness of the intra-arterial supply of fully-elaborated 
nutriment. In other words, the more active the body 
and the more perfect the existing conditions, the more 
abundant is the imbibition of the food by the cells of 
the muscles and nerves. 


FASCIAL AND MUSCTJLAK MECHANICS. 

The Fascia, or “investing membrane” of the 
muscle is constructed on the same principle that ob¬ 



tains in the construction of the elemental cells, of 
which there are millions in the average muscle. That 
is to say, it is a network of very strong and absolutely 










MUSCULAR MECHANICS 


169 


inelastic filaments, which proceeds, as a general rule, 
from the tendinous extremities of a muscle and 
spreads itself over the entire surfaces of the same, 
as shown in Fig. 10. Fig. 11 shows the muscle in a 
state of contraction, its fascia being transversely ex¬ 
panded and its length reduced. Fig. 12 discloses the 
mode of the construction of the walls of the cells in 
which the food is stored—that the wall of the cell as 
well as the covering of the muscle, or fascia, is a well- 
extended net-work. A moment’s study of these dia¬ 
grams will show that whenever the vitomotive-power 
is generated within it the cell is bound to expand in 
the transverse direction and become shorter, as shown 
in Fig. 13, and that the fascia will in turn be forced 
by the expansion of the cells to do the same, as shown 
in Fig. 11. 

When the muscle is relaxed, or at rest, both the 
cells and the fascia are so fully extended in the direc¬ 
tion of their longer axes that their meshes are well- 
nigh closed; hence, their susceptibility to further ex¬ 
tension is only sufficient to permit of the action of the 
opposing muscle. It is an easy matter to see that 
whenever the net-work represented by Fig. 10 is ex¬ 
tended from within, it will assume the shape of that 
represented by Fig. 13, involving a transverse expan¬ 
sion and a longitudinal shortening. It should be care¬ 
fully noted, that the muscle is free to expand in the 
transverse direction only, and that the objects at¬ 
tained by this method of construction are: first, the 
quickest possible response to the mandates of the will; 
secondly, the greatest possible effect (movement) 



170 


THE NEW VITAL PHILOSOPHY 


from the least possible expenditure of the Vitomo- 
tive-Power, as already stated. 

THE CONNECTING LINK BETWEEN MIND AND BODY. 

In all the centuries of scientific inquiry the con¬ 
nection between the mind and the body, or how the 
one controls the other, has remained a most profound 
mystery. It is not at all difficult to perceive that the 
activities of the living organism must be due to the 
co-operation of no less than four distinct forms of 
energy: First, the Ego—the power whose exercise is 
called the will; second, Nervous Energy, or vital elec¬ 
tricity ; third, Muscular-Energy, or Propelling 
Power; fourth, Animal Heat, or body temperature. 
It is also an easy matter to see (1) that the Ego is the 
mind and ruling principle; (2) that the brain, nerves, 
muscles and bones are instruments of the mind—that 
the bones serve as levers and fulcrums, the muscles 
as propellers, the nerves as conductors, the cerebrum 
and cerebellum as directors, the former being the in¬ 
strument of the conscious, or volitional, and the latter 
of the subconscious, or instinctive mind; third, that 
animal heat favors vital operations by keeping the 
body at the proper temperature winter and summer. 

While all this is plainly apparent, it has so hap¬ 
pened that the rationale of vital operations, or modus 
operandi of the impingement of the immaterial mind 
upon the material body has for centuries baffled all 
investigation and defied all human comprehension, 
the existing literature of the scientific world being 
the criterion. In short, the problem here presented 




MYSTERY OF MENTAL CONTROL 


171 


has been the despair of the biological and physiolog¬ 
ical realms. Investigators have been able to see the 
initial and final events of the vital action, but not that 
which constitutes the connecting link. In other 
words, it is an easy matter for any one to see the na¬ 
ture and extent of the response that is made to the 
volitional edict, comprehending the contraction of the 
muscles and the movement of the parts to which these 
structures are attached, but the most gifted of all ob¬ 
servers have not as yet detected the way in which or 
the means whereby the immaterial mind impinges 
upon the material structures, as it does in setting the 
vital machinery in motion. The athlete wills it and a 
great weight is lifted; the pianist wills it and his fin¬ 
gers sweep the key-board of his instrument with a 
celerity which has been as baffling to the vital philoso¬ 
phers as it has been pleasing to his auditors. 

The best attempt thus far made to explain the im¬ 
pingement of the mind upon the body is the obviously 
inadequate hypothesis that the vital machine owes 
its activities to what is variously termed nervous en¬ 
ergy, vital electricity, and vital magnetism. I say 
“ obviously inadequate, ’ ’ because it is a perfectly dis¬ 
cernible, though apparently unnoticed, fact that every 
explanation of the kind is perfectly open to the ob¬ 
jection of being more obscure than the action that it 
professed to explain. In short, not a single theory 
thus far advanced has been sufficiently lucid to secure 
any more than a tentative adoption by the scientific 
world. 

Now the reason for this want of appreciation lies 



172 


THE NEW VITAL PHILOSOPHY 


in the fact that there is a prodigious gap, or missing 
link, in every such chain of reasoning. Nor will the 
duly critical reader need to be told that reference is 
made to a want of knowledge concerning the third 
member of the above named quadruplet of energies— 
the power or form of energy on which the phenome¬ 
non of muscular contraction the more especially de¬ 
pends, and which may, therefore, be termed the Vito- 
motive-Power, as already observed. 

Now, if the reader wfill take the pains to familiar¬ 
ize himself with the facts and principles set forth in 
the foregoing and in the following pages, he will have 
little or no trouble to see the feasibility of the follow¬ 
ing explanation of the way in which and the means 
whereby the immaterial mind animates and controls 
the material organism. 

The more important of the facts and principles 
which w T ill serve as a basis for the elucidation of the 
problem in question are the following: First, that 
carbon is the essential or energy-dispensing element 
of food; second, that the food must be not only thor¬ 
oughly digested, but fully incorporated with oxygen, 
the finished product taking the shape of the haemo- 
cyte, or red blood corpuscle; third, that nutrition con¬ 
sists, not in the rebuilding of wornout tissues, as we 
have heretofore supposed, but in the filling, or refill¬ 
ing of the cells with highly combustible nutrient mat¬ 
ter—that intimate comminglement of food and oxy¬ 
gen—of a combustible with a supporter of combus¬ 
tion—which is known to science as arterial blood; 
fourth, that nervous energy—or vital electricity 



MENTAL CONTROL EXPLAINED 


173 


—is the tertium quid, or third agent, (the “sparker”) 
that “touches off,” so to speak, the explosive com¬ 
pound (arterial blood) with which the cells were filled 
in the consummation of the nutritive process, as al¬ 
ready stated and explained. 

HOW THE MIND CONTROLS THE BODY. 

With all these facts, principles and explanations 
well in mind the student will readily perceive that the 
mind sets the vital machinery in motion in pretty 
much the same way that the defender of a seaport 
brings his determination, or will, to bear upon the 
vessels composing the enemy’s fleet—that the wires 
connecting his galvanic battery with the explosive 
confined in the submerged torpedoes represent the 
nerve tracts; that nervous energy is the counterpart 
of the electric current evolved by the battery; that 
the man in charge of the battery is the counterpart of 
the will; that the exercise of the will represents the 
closing of the electric circuit and that the resulting 
explosion is the counterpart of that which takes place 
in the muscles. With these facts well in mind the 
reader will readily perceive that the mind acts upon 
the muscles as the man in charge of the battery acts 
upon the enemy’s fleet—that is, by exploding the nu¬ 
trient matter stored in the cells, giving rise to mus¬ 
cular energy, or vitomotive-power, and a correspond¬ 
ing amount of activity. 

For the sake of emphasizing the hypothesis now 
advanced I will venture an appeal to a similar series 
of comparisons—namely, first, that the mind may be 



174 


THE NEW VITAL PHILOSOPHY 


likened unto the man engaged in blasting rock; sec¬ 
ond, that the nutrient matter in the cells of the 
muscles represents the powder to be ignited; third, 
that the wires that connect the electric battery with 
the powder-charge represent the nerve tract; fourth, 
that nervous energy represents the electric current; 
fifth, that the man that operates the battery repre¬ 
sents the will; sixth, that the exercise of the will rep¬ 
resents the closing of the electrical circuit, and, sev¬ 
enth, that the explosion of the powder charge repre¬ 
sents the combustion that takes place in the cells, 
giving rise to carbon-dioxide, or the vitomotive- 
power, and this, in turn, to movement of the part or 
parts to which the volitional impulse was addressed. 

The more exacting and complete the examination, 
the more evident will be the fact that the impinge¬ 
ment of the mind upon the working parts of the vital 
machinery is effected by, or consists in the vito- 
electric ignition of the explosive compound that gives 
rise to the vitomotive power—namely, the nutrient 
matter previously stored in the nutrient cavities or 
cells of the power-displaying mechanism, commonly 
called muscles. I repeat, and without the slightest 
imaginable fear of successful contradiction, that the 
mystery involved in physical obedience to mental ac¬ 
tion finds a logical and trustworthy solution in the 
proposition that whenever the mind (will) acts, a 
nervo-electric current is generated in the cerebral 
cells; .that this current is borne by the nerve-tracts to 
the muscles to which it is addressed; that the “spark” 
thus brought into contact with the explosive (nutrient 



THE MISSING LINK SUPPLIED 


175 


matter) stored in the cells produces a corresponding 
volume of carbon dioxide gas, and that by reason of 
the intra-cellular expansion of this gas, the muscles 
are forced to contract, thus setting the vital machin¬ 
ery in motion. By reason of much study of the sub¬ 
ject, I do not hesitate to affirm that the hitherto un¬ 
known quantities in the biological and physiological 
equations, comprehending the missing-links of the 
chain of fundamental knowledge—the construction 
and replenishment of the cells, and the nature, origin 
and modus operandi of muscular power, together 
with most if not all that these things naturally imply, 
have at last been added to the previously existing 
fund of scientific information. 

The practical value of this interpretation of vital 
phenomena will hardly be called in question, after the 
facts and explanations to be found in the remaining 
portion of this work have been thoroughly and im¬ 
partially considered. 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE PHILOSOPHY OF MUSCULAR CONTRACTION. 

Comprehending the Rationale, or Modus Operandi, 
of the Vitomotive-Power and of Its Auxiliary 
Agencies, Mental, Nervous and Thermal. 

Having already explained the nature of the vito- 
motive power, the material from which it is derived, 
the way in which it is called into being, the measure 
of its propulsive capacity, together with its birth¬ 
place, or local, though temporary, habitat—the mus¬ 
cular cell,—I shall be all the better prepared to show 
how it exerts its mighty power upon the motor 
mechanism. 

The Human Body is an automaton of the highest 
order and of the most enigmatical character. In con¬ 
sequence of the inherent incentives, volitional and in¬ 
stinctive, it takes in crude materials in the shape of 
food and oxygen, and by a hitherto mysterious al¬ 
chemy, or vito-chemism, extracts from them a triad 
of energies of the first importance as well as of the 
most enigmatical character—the heat that warms, 
the energy that controls and the power that propels. 
Let us see if this enigma can be solved. 

THE POWER TRANSFORMERS. 

The fascia and the nutrient cells have thus far 
been considered separate and apart from each other. 
Let us now proceed to study them as co-workers in the 

176 


MUSCULAR CONTRACTION EXPLAINED 


177 


transformation of food-energy into muscular power. 
The mechanism through which this wonderful change 
is effected, is, after all, quite simple, as will be seen 
by reference to Figs. 14, 15 and 16. Fig. 14 repre¬ 
sents a muscle with its longitudinally extended net¬ 
work, or fascia, while Figs. 15 and 16 are intended to 
illustrate muscular contraction. Let us suppose that 
the lines a and b, Fig. 15, represent opposing sides of 



Fig. 14. Fig. 15. Fig. 16. 


the fascia of a muscle and that the junction of these 
lines, above and below, represent its tendinous ex¬ 
tremities. In order to make the mechanics of cell- 
action and muscular contraction all the more easy of 
comprehension, let us simplify matters by supposing 
that all the cells of any given muscle have been 
blended into one, and that this huge cell is represented 
by the circle C, of the figure just referred to. It will 















178 


THE PHILOSOPHY OF MUSCULAR CONTRACTION 


now be perceived that if this cell be forcibly ex¬ 
panded, its diameter will be increased and that it will 
impinge upon the lines a and b, forcing them apart 
in the center and producing that approximation of 
the extremities of the figure which is shown in Fig. 
16. It is needless to point out that the discrepancy 
between the continuous and the broken lines is in¬ 
tended to indicate the enlargement of the cell and the 
shortening of the fascia. The attentive reader will 
readily perceive that whenever the will so orders, the 
nutrient matter stored in the cells will explode, pro¬ 
ducing carbon dioxide—the vitomotive-power; that 
the expansion of this gas will cause the cells to ex¬ 
pand; that the cells will in turn impinge upon the 
inner surface of the fascia and that this structure will 
yield, as all other moving objects do, in the direction 
of least resistance, which is transverse to its longer 
axis, as will be seen by reference to the fact already 
stated—namely, that it (the fascia) consists of a 
longitudinally extended net-work of absolutely in¬ 
elastic fibres. For it is an obvious fact that such a 
structure cannot be further extended, or made longer, 
but is perfectly open to transverse expansion, which 
will of necessity make it shorter. 

MIGRATORY NODOSITIES. 

In the light of the foregoing explanation of mus¬ 
cular contraction, it is not at all difficult to under¬ 
stand or explain the “muscular wave” referred to in 
the following quotation: 

“It has been long since observed that there are 




THE MUSCULAR WAVE 


179 


formed upon living muscles at the points where they 
are excited, lumps or nodosities which run along the 
whole length of the muscle, with more or less rapid¬ 
ity, like a wave on the surface of the water. Aeby has 
shown that this is a normal phenomenon, and, under 
the name of muscular wave, he has described this 
movement, which from the excited point, passes to the 
two extremities of the muscle at the rate of about a 
metre in a second. By means of an apparatus, which 
we have called myographical clips, the reality of this 
movement of the wave may be verified in the living 
animal. 

“When the wave appears in the muscle, it pro¬ 
duces contraction. During the whole of its passage 
the contraction continues, and when, having reached 
the end of the muscular fibre, the wave vanishes, the 
contraction disappears with it. 

“These facts resemble those which the micro¬ 
scope reveals in living muscular fibre. Let a bundle 
of muscular fibres be taken from an insect, and placed 
under the objective of the microscope (the feet of 
eoleoptera are well suited for this purpose) ; we first 
observe the beautiful transverse striation of these 
fibres, and then we perceive on their surface an un- 
dulatory movement often alternating, which resem¬ 
bles the motion of waves of the surface of water. On 
examining this phenomenon more closely, we see the 
transverse-striae of the fibre are at certain points, 
very close together, which is shown in the figure by a 
dilatation of the fibre. This is the wave shown by the 
microscope; the longitudinal condensation of the 
muscle at this point gives it greater capacity than in 
the other portions (Fig. 6). This opaque wave trav¬ 
els through the length of the fibre. In other words, 
the points at which the striae approach each other are 
not always the same, the longitudinal condensation 



180 THE PHILOSOPHY OP MUSCULAR CONTRACTION 


disappears in one place whilst it is produced in the 
contiguous parts. 



THE MUSCULAR WAVE (MAREY). 


“ Since the contraction of the muscle is accom¬ 
plished by its transverse dilatation, we may study the 
characteristics of the motion produced in a muscle, 
according to this expansion.”—Animal Mechanism, 
pp. 35-36. By permission of the publishers, D. Ap¬ 
pleton & Company, New York. 

The wave thus described resembles the phenome¬ 
non displayed by an earthworm while crawling, and 
may be explained by assuming, as before stated, that 
the walls of its component cells consist of a net-work 
of extremely delicate, perfectly inelastic and closely 
woven filaments; that this net-work is so fully ex¬ 
tended in the direction of its longer axis that it may 
not be materially extended; that by reason of this 
arrangement the cells can expand only in the trans¬ 
verse direction, and that the result of such expansion 
will be a change in the form of the cell which is the 
exact counterpart of that which we see in a contract¬ 
ing muscle. 

Let it be carefully noted in passing that the chem¬ 
ical process on which the movements of the vital 
machine depends, is exactly the reverse of that which 

occurs in the formation of organic matter—food_ 

the details of which process were briefly stated in an¬ 
other chapter. That is to say, the storage of energy 








THE SECRET OF MUSCULAR EFFICIENCY 


181 


in vegetable matter—the source from which all foods 
are either directly or indirectly derived—depends 
upon the dissociation of carbon and oxygen, while the 
development of the vital energies depends upon the 
association, or reunion of these elements. 

THE KEYS TO MUSCULAR EFFICIENCY. 

It has long been realized in scientific circles that 
in the matter of economy and efficiency the Living 
Machine is vastly superior to any “prime mover” of 
human construction. The 
facts and arguments ad¬ 
vanced by sundry authorities 
in support of their conten¬ 
tion to this effect are so clear 
and comprehensive that no 
room is left for doubt. In 
short, scientists in general 
have remarked but failed 
to explain the fact that the Fi S . u- 

Living Organism is the most efficient and economical 
of all prime-movers. This approval appears all the 
more remarkable when viewed in the light of the 
fact that it has been secured in spite of the adverse 
leverage under which the propelling power has to act. 

This superiority finch explanation in the fact (1) 
that the body obtains a maximum of energy from a 
minimum of the energizing material—food; (2) that 
the vitomotive-power has a dynamic equivalent of 
forty atmospheres and (3) that this agent has the 
most efficacious mode of application that can possibly 








182 THE PHILOSOPHY OF MUSCULAR CONTRACTION 


be conceived, as will be seen by reference to the sub¬ 
joined illustration, Fig. 15. In this figure the con¬ 
tinuous or outer circle represents in cross-section the 
extreme outline of a contracted muscle, while the 
inner circle of dotted lines depicts the muscle at rest. 
The arrows pointing from the center toward the cir¬ 
cumference of the circles are intended to express and 
impress upon the student the important truth that 
the “carbonic acid gas” (vitomotive-power) devel¬ 
oped within the muscular cells, exerts its mighty 
power in every conceivable direction—that is, upon 
every imaginable point in the circumference of the 
power transmitting device called the fascia, consti¬ 
tuting in theory, if not in reality, a corresponding 
multiplication of a power, or form of energy, which 
is within itself a wonder-worker in point of efficiency, 
as the effect produced by the explosion of mixtures of 
gaseous carbon and oxygen goes to show. 




CHAPTER VII. 


THE M TJ SCTJLO-MECH ANIC AL AND TOXICO-VIVIFICAL 
PARADOXES. 

A Succinct Statement of the Marvelous Attributes, 
Migrations, Metamorphoses and Paradoxical Ex¬ 
ploits of the Essential Element of Food—facts 
Which Account for the Tardiness of Medical 
Progression. 

The theories now presented in explanation of the 
phenomenon of muscular contraction will surely 
cause the man of science, not only to recall the fact 
of the wondrous prevalence of the element upon 
which this great fact of life mainly depends—namely, 
carbon, but to engage in the delightful as well as in¬ 
structive diversion of tracing out the splendid circle 
that it describes in the course of its ministrations on 
behalf of the vegetable and animal kingdoms; first, 
in its departure from the precincts of vitality, by 
way of the respiratory system, and in the shape of 
carbon dioxide gas; then in its wanderings through 
the circumambient atmosphere in combination with 
oxygen and under its connubial appellation CO 2 ; 
then in its divorcement from its companion (oxygen) 
and entrance into the organic compact as the princi¬ 
pal element, or energy-dispensing, constituent of 
food; then in its migration from the intestinal tract 
into the circulating system, as the prime essential of 
nutrient matter; then in its wanderings through the 

183 


184 


THE PARADOXES OF LIFE 


devious labyrinths of the animal organism as the 
chief constituent of the red blood corpuscle, and 
hence, as the traveling companion and prospective 
bride of oxygen; then in its passage in company with 
its attendant (oxygen) from the circulating system 
into the nutrient cells of the muscular, nervous and 
cerebral systems; then in its intra-cellular remar¬ 
riage with oxygen under the ministrations of the duly 
empowered officials, the will and the vital instincts, 
(the nerves being the bearers of the volitional and 
instinctive decrees) ; then in the bestowal of its price¬ 
less benefactions—that fervency which sets the body 
aglow with animal heat; that subtle influence which 
not only conveys the mandates of the will and of the 
vital instincts to the deepest recesses and remotest 
ramifications of the vital organism, but underlies the 
wonders of the sensorium, as well. In short, the sci¬ 
entific mind will readily perceive that organized 
carbon is the source not only of the relatively inferior 
color animalis, or animal heat, but of the higher po¬ 
tentialities of life— that subtle agency which puts the 
ego into vito-electric communication with every prov¬ 
ince of its vast domain; that matchless radiance 
which goes to make up the intellectual splendors of 
the world and the vitomotive-power—that marvelous 
physical agency which sets all animated nature in 
motion, baffling identification in the peculiarities of 
its modus operandi, comprehending, as it does, both 
the toxico-vivifical paradox of producing life by 
means of a deadly gas , and the musculo-mechanical 
paradox of producing contraction by means of ex - 



THE PARADOXES OF LIFE 


185 


pansion , the contraction of the muscles in conse¬ 
quence of the forcible expansion of their component 
cells. 

OTHER PARADOXES. 

The further we advance in the study of vital phe¬ 
nomena the more evident will be the fact that the 
foregoing are only a few out of the many paradoxes 
that have for centuries been exhibiting themselves, so 
to speak, in the human body, inviting all attention 
and baffling all discernment; not because they are es¬ 
sentially beyond the range of human comprehension 
or explication, but for the simple reason that the eyes 
of the spectators have been too firmly riveted upon 
the objects of deception—namely, the facts and phe¬ 
nomena that go to make up the symptomatology of 
health and disease, the general effect being a maze 
of the most complex and bewildering order. 

It must now be perfectly evident that we have in 
times past made the mistake of confining our efforts 
to the ascertainment and classification of facts when 
the thing needed was a set of principles which would 
explain the facts—a species of information which can 
be obtained by viewing things, not with an instru¬ 
ment which has a thirty-six-inch aperture, nor with 
one which has a one-twelfth-inch objective, but with 
that device of far greater scope, penetration and pre¬ 
cision which enabled Newton, and Faraday, and 
Mayer, and Morse, and Bell, and Edison and all other 
successful laborers in the domain of scientific investi¬ 
gation, to see things which were beyond the range of 
any telescope or microscope that was ever constructed 



ENERGY A PROPERTY OF MATTER 


1&6 


or ever will be—namely, the eye of the mind, the only 
instrument that is capable of detecting the powers 
and possibilities of the realms immaterial and 
invisible. 

Modern science regards energy as a property of 
matter, and I have now shown that the vital energies 
are properties, not of the matter of which the body 
itself is composed, as authorities in general have 
claimed, but of the food stored in the cells thereof. 
The body is a machine, and without the energy¬ 
dispensing materials called food, is as powerless, 
physiologically speaking, as any inanimate machine 
is when deprived of its motive power. 

Go thou, dear reader, and study the ant at work 
and see in the extraordinary power that it is able to 
exert in proportion to its weight, a most excellent ex¬ 
ample of the marvelous potency and adaptability of 
CO 2 (carbonic acid gas), the power that the great 
architect of the Material Universe has assigned to 
His most important principality, the domain of Ani¬ 
mated Nature. 

The eminent Benjamin Ward Richardson, M. D., 
of London, England, expressed the belief that the 
Human Body is a water engine; Du Bois-Reymond 
and other eminent scientists endeavored to show that 
it is an electrical engine, but the truth is, every living 
organism is a gas engine, and of the most inapproach¬ 
able order at that, surpassing in point of efficiency 
and to an enormous extent, the greatest Prime Mover 
that the inventive genius of modern times has thus 



PROFESSOR LUDWIG S CRITICISM 


187 


far produced, as scientists have fully realized and 
asserted. 

The celebrated German physiologist, Professor 
Karl Frederick Wilhelm Ludwig, uttered a great 
truth when he said, as he did in the long ago, that: 
“The human inventor is but a blunderer as compared 
with the unknown Master of the animal creation .’ 9 



CHAPTER VIII. 

ANIMAL HEAT, OR BODY TEMPERATURE. 

A New Doctrine concerning the Production of An¬ 
imal Heat—Pointing out the Place where it is 
Produced, the Material from which it is Devel¬ 
oped and how it is brought into being. 

It is not at all unreasonable to suppose; first, that 
the nutrient matter stored in the cells is so very un¬ 
stable and so completely under instinctive control, 
that a slow combustion—just sufficient to keep up the 
ordinary body temperature—may constantly be main¬ 
tained; second, that the carbon dioxide produced 
under such circumstances will be taken up by the 
aqueous element (water) of the blood as fast as it is 
formed, and that the muscle will therefore remain the 
meanwhile at rest; third, that in order to arouse and 
utilize the propulsive capabilities of the nutrient mat¬ 
ter that is smouldering, as it were, in the cells, it will 
be necessary to greatly and suddenly increase the 
oxidizing process, in which event the evolution of the 
gas in question will be rapid enough to enable it to 
exert its expansive power upon the muscular struc¬ 
tures before it has had time to escape from the cells 
into the water of the blood; fourth, that this is ac¬ 
complished by means of a nervous impulse, originated 
by act of the will or of the vital instincts, as the case 
may be, and conveyed by the nerve fibres. In short, 
the combustion that is constantly going on in the cells, 
giving rise to animal heat, is stirred into explosive 
188 


TRANSFORMATION OF ENERGY 


189 


violence by a volitional nervous impulse, the result 
being the production of carbon dioxide in sufficient 
volume and with sufficient suddenness to enable it to 
set the vital machinery in motion before it (the car¬ 
bon dioxide) has had time to escape from the cells. 

It will be well for the reader to here pause and 
not only recall, but fix indelibly upon the memory the 
important and well known fact that oxygen cannot 
unite with organic matter in the absence of a tertium 
quid, or third agent, of some sort, and that the ner¬ 
vous influence, a prominent member of this class of 
agencies, has charge of those combinations of food 
and oxygen on which the development of the vital en¬ 
ergies depends. 

TRANSFORMATION OF ENERGY. 

The facts which are involved in the transforma¬ 
tion of the potential energy of the food into the kine¬ 
tic form, as we find it in the vitomotive-power, cannot 
be too deeply impressed upon the mind; hence, it will 
be well to repeat: 1. The nutrient matter stored in 
the cells in the consummation of the nutritive process, 
consisting as it does of a most intimate commingle- 
ment of food and oxygen—of a combustible with a 
supporter of combustion—is in a state of extremely 
unstable equilibrium, and is, therefore, nothing more 
nor less than a delicately balanced explosive of high 
potential; 2. The carbon and oxygen thus intimately 
associated is brought into chemical combination 
by act of the will expressed by means of the 
nerves and nervous influence; 3. Whenever the 



190 


ANIMAL HEAT OR, BODY TEMPERATURE 


will so orders, an explosion must occur in every 
cell which is included in or reached by the voli¬ 
tional edict; 4. The carbon dioxide thus generated 
within the cells forces them to expand and in a di¬ 
rection which is transverse to the longer axis of the 
fibril, this being the line of least resistance, as above 
explained; 5. The expanding cells impinge upon the 
inner surface of the fascia, forcing it to yield in like 
manner and for the same reason, thus producing that 
transverse expansion and longitudinal shortening of 
a muscle on which the physical activities of the body 
chiefly and evidently depend, as above stated. In 
short, the will acts, the nutrient matter explodes, the 
cells expand, the fascia yields, the muscle contracts, 
and the vital machinery is set in motion; not, however, 
in consequence of 44 metabolism” of the “wdiite blood 
corpuscle/’ but of the red; not by reason of the 
“metamorphosis” of the tissues of the body, but of 
food; not by the energy of 44 resurrected sunbeams” 
nor of any other immaterial agency, but of expanding 
carbon dioxide gas; not in consequence of the pres¬ 
ence of nitrogen in the food nor of any other incom¬ 
bustible element, but of carbon, and this not from the 
inorganic world, but the organic; not by a product 
of any laboratory of human origin, but of the plant 
world—that immeasurably greater concern which 
was instituted by the All-Wise-Being and for the ex¬ 
press purpose of effecting the separation of those 
elements—carbon and oxygen—from whose reunion 
within the nutritive cells of the living organism must 
come all the energies, physical, nervous and thermal 
of the entire domain of animated nature. 



CHAPTER IX. 


FUNCTIONS OF THE LIVER, SPLEEN, THYROID GLAND AND 
LYMPHATIC SYSTEM. 

Xew Theories Advanced in Explanation of the pur¬ 
poses and workings of these Organs, showing in 
particular that the spleen has two highly impor¬ 
tant functions. 

The foregoing Vital Philosophy, comprehending 
the principles involved in the construction, nutrition, 
innervation and propulsion of the Vital Organism, 
and in the removal of the normal waste products, has 
cast a flood of light upon several of the most obscure 
problems of the vital domain—questions which have 
baffled investigators for many centuries. Reference 
is made, in the first place, to the functions of the liver, 
spleen, thyroid gland and lympathic system, and, in 
the next place, to the nature, origin and destiny of 
certain substances which are found in the circulating 
and eliminating systems and in other parts of the 
body. 

Physiologists in general seem confident that they 
understand the performance of the liver and the pur¬ 
poses subserved by its products, but when they come 
to the spleen and thyroid they freely admit that the 
functions thereof are to them unknown. Dalton 
makes no further reference to the spleen than the 
mere mention of the fact that its nervous supply is 
furnished by the sympathetic system. Nor does he 
so much as mention the thyroid gland. Redding says 

191 


192 


FUNCTION OF SPLEEN AND THYROID 


nothing regarding the spleen and thyroid. Martin, 
Dunham and Huxley not only freely admit that they 
do not know the purpose of the spleen and thyroid, 
but betray a feeling of indecision regarding the func¬ 
tional attributes of the lymphatic system. 

The references that our leading authorities have 
made to the organs in question constitute an excellent 
introductory to the elucidation of these important 
questions, and, hence, attention will now be called to 
the following quotations from Gray, Huxley and 
Dunham: 

gray's anatomy. 

“The proper substance of the spleen or spleen-pulp 
is u soft mass of a dark reddish-brown color, resem¬ 
bling grumous blood. When examined, by means of a 
thin section, under a microscope, it is found to consist 
of a number of branching cells and an intercellular 
substance. The cells are connective-tissue corpuscles, 
and have been named the sustentacular or supporting 
cells of the pulp. The processes of these branching 
cells communicate with each other, thus forming a 
delicate reticulated tissue in the interior of the are¬ 
olae formed by the trabeculae of the capsule; so that 
each primary space may be considered to be divided 
into a number of smaller spaces by the junction of 
these processes of the branching corpuscles. These 
secondary spaces contain blood, in which, however, 
the white corpuscles are found to be in larger pro¬ 
portions than they are in ordinary blood. The sus¬ 
tentacular cells are either small uni-nucleated or 
larger multi-nucleated cells; they do not become 
deeply stained with carmine, like the cells of the 
Malpighian bodies, presently to be described (W. 
Muller), but like them they possess amoeboid move- 



TESTIMONY OF AUTHORITIES 


193 


ments (Cohnheim). In many of them may be seen 
deep red or reddish-yellow granules of various sizes 
which present the characters of the haematin of the 
blood. Sometimes, also, unchanged blood-disks are 
seen included in these cells, but more frequently 
blood-disks are found which are altered both in form 
and color. In fact, blood-corpuscles in all stages of 
disintegration may be noticed to occur within them. 
Klein has recently pointed out that sometimes these 
cells in the young spleen contain a proliferating 
nucleus; that is to say, the nucleus is of large size, 
and presents a number of knob-like projections, as if 
small nuclei were budding from it by a process of 
gemmation. This observation is of importance, as it 
may explain one possible source of the colorless blood- 
corpuscles. 

“The interspaces of areolae formed by the frame¬ 
work of the spleen are thus filled by a delicate reti¬ 
culum of branched connective-tissue corpuscles the 
interstices of which are occupied by blood, and in 
which the blood-vessels terminate in the manner now 
to be described. 

“ Blood-vessels of the Spleen .—The splenic artery 
is remarkable for its large size in proportion to the 
size of the organ, and also for its tortuous course. It 
divides into six or more branches, which enter the 
hilum of the spleen and ramify throughout its sub¬ 
stance (Fig. 524), receiving sheaths from the in¬ 
volution of the external fibrous tissue. Similar 
sheaths also invest the nerves and veins.’’—From 
Gray’s Anatomy, by permission of the publishers, 
Lea Bros. & Co., Philadelphia, Pa. 

huxley's physiology. 

“Nothing certain is known of the functions of 
certain bodies which are sometimes called ductless 



194 


FUNCTION OF SPLEEN AND THYROID 


glands, but have quite a different structure from ordi¬ 
nary secreting glands; and indeed do not resemble 
each other in structure. These are, the thyroid body, 
which lies in the part of the throat below the larynx, 
and is that organ which, when enlarged by disease, 
gives rise to “Derbyshire neck” or “goitre”; the 
thymus body, situated at the base of the heart, largest 
in infants, and gradually disappearing in adult, or 
old persons; and the supra-renal bodies, which lie 
above the kidneys. 

“We are as much in the dark respecting the office 
of the large viscus called the spleen, which lies upon 
the left side of the stomach in the abdominal cavity. 
It is an elongated, flattened, red body, abundantly 
supplied with blood by an artery called the splenic 
artery, which proceeds almost directly from the 
aorta. The blood which has traversed the spleen is 
collected by the splenic vein, and is carried by it to 
the vena portae, and so to the liver. 

“A section of the spleen shows a dark red spongy 
mass dotted over with minute whitish spots. Each 
of these last is the section of one of the spheroidal 
bodies called corpuscles of the spleen, which are scat¬ 
tered through its substance, and consist of a solid ag¬ 
gregation of minute bodies, like the white corpuscles 
of the blood, traversed by a capillary network, which 
is fed by a small twig of the splenic artery. The 
dark red part of the spleen, in which these white spots 
are embedded, is composed of a spongy framework of 
fibrous and elastic tissue, frequently mixed with plain 
muscular fibres, and of peculiar delicate vascular 
structures, which fill up the meshes of the framework, 
and through which the splenic blood flows. 

“The elasticity of the splenic tissue allows the or¬ 
gan to be readily distended with blood, and enables 
it to return to its former size after distension. It ap- 



TESTIMONY, OF AUTHORITIES 


195 


pears to change its dimensions with the state of the 
abdominal viscera, attaining its largest size about six 
hours after a full meal, and falling to its minimum 
bulk six or seven hours later, if no further supply of 
food be taken. 

“The blood of the splenic vein is found to con¬ 
tain proportionally fewer red corpuscles, but more 
colourless corpuscles, than in the splenic artery; and 
it has been supposed that the spleen is one of those 
parts of the economy in which, on the one hand, col¬ 
ourless corpuscles of the blood are produced, and, on 
the other, red corpuscles die and are broken up.”— 
From Huxley’s “Elementary Lessons in Physiol- 
ogy,” by permission of the publishers, Macmillan & 
Co., London & New York. 

dunham’s histology. 

Attention is now called to the more important part 
of Dunham’s description of the spleen, which is as 
follows: 

“Nearly the whole surface of the spleen is in¬ 
vested with a covering of peritoneum similar to that 
which partially covers the liver. Beneath this is the 
true capsule of the spleen, which completely sur¬ 
rounds it. This capsule is composed of dense fibrous 
tissue, containing a large number of elastic fibres and 
a few of smooth muscular tissue. From its inner sur¬ 
face bands of the same tissue, called the “trabeculae,” 
penetrate into the substance of the organ, where they 
branch, and the branches join each other to form a 
coarse meshwork occupied by the parenchyma of the 
organ, the “pulp.” 

“The bloodvessels of the spleen enter at the hilum 
and pass into the large trabeculae, which start from 
the capsule at that point and enclose the vessels until 



196 


FUNCTION OF SPLEEN AND THYROID 


they divide into small branches. The vessels then 
leave the trabeculae and penetrate the pulp, where 
they break up into capillaries, which do not anasto¬ 
mose with each other. There is some doubt as to the 
way in which these capillaries end. According to one 
view they unite to form the venous radicles, so that 
the blood is confined within vessels throughout its 
course in the spleen. Another view, which is more 
probably correct, is that the walls of the capillaries 
become incomplete, clefts appearing between their 
endothelial cells, which finally change their form and 
become similar to those of the reticulum of the pulp. 
The veins, according to this view, arise in a manner 
similar to the endings of the arteries. The result 
of this structure would be that the blood is dis¬ 
charged, from the capillary terminations of the arte¬ 
ries, directly into the meshes of the pulp, after which 
it is taken up by the capillary origins of the veins. 

“The pulp consists of a fine reticulum of delicate 
fibres and cells, with branching and communicating 
processes, in the meshes of which there are red blood 
corpuscles, leucocytes in greater number than nor¬ 
mally present in the blood, and free amoeboid cells 
considerably larger than leucocytes, called the 
‘splenic cells.’ ”—From Dunham’s “Normal His¬ 
tology,” page 176, by permission of the publishers, 
Lea Bros. & Co., New York & Philadelphia. 

The reader will do well to note with care the vari¬ 
ous words, names and clauses that Prof. Huxley has 
called especial attention to by putting them in italics; 
for by so doing it will be much easier to comprehend 
and remember the explanations to be submitted in 
this connection. For the same reason it will be well 
for the reader to recall at this juncture several gaps 
in the teachings of authorities. Eeference is made to 



THE MASTER KEY 


197 


the deplorable and well-known fact that our litera¬ 
ture, vastly voluminous as it certainly is, does not 
point out the material from which the bile is pro¬ 
duced; does not account for the presence of colloid 
gelatinous and muciparous materials in the blood 
stream and interstitial spaces; does not present so 
much as a fairly acceptable reason for the deposition 
of glycogen and starch granules in the liver; does not 
account for the fact that glycogen is sometimes pro¬ 
duced when a man or animal is fed on albumin alone; 
does not account for the fact that the ingestion of 
amylaceous substances is sometimes attended by the 
appearance in the urinary excretion of an extraor¬ 
dinary amount of glycogen, glucose or diabetic sugar; 
does not show that this ingenerated glucose subserves 
any vital purpose; does not account for fibroid de¬ 
generation of the liver, or kidneys, or of any other 
organ; does not explain the function of the trabe¬ 
culae of the spleen and lymph-nodes, and last, but not 
least, it does not account for the fact that the enlarge¬ 
ment, extirpation and shrinkage of the thyroid gland 
are attended by such morbid phenomena as increased 
blood pressure, increase in the frequency of the 
heart’s action, mental aberration, colloid disease, and 
increased viscosity of the blood, the essential diffi¬ 
culty in myxedema. 

THE MASTER KEY. 

The Master Key to the various problems under 
consideration is to be found in the new doctrines of 
digestion, absorption and nutrition set forth in the 



198 


FUNCTION OF SPLEEN AND THYROID 


preceding chapter. In said chapter it is shown that 
nutrition consists in the refilling of the cells with nu¬ 
trient matter, which plainly implies that the food 
must be so completely digested and, hence, so emi¬ 
nently diffusible, that it will be able to find its way 
through the finest tissues to be found in the body— 
namely, those that enter into the construction of the 
capillaries and of the cells of the muscular and nerv¬ 
ous systems. Since it is evident that the tissues com¬ 
posing the cells are vastly finer than those of which 
the walls of the alimentary tract are composed, and 
since it is practically impossible for any man or ani¬ 
mal to live so close to nature as not to consume some 
indigestible material, it follows with all the force of 
a perfectly logical concept that the All-Wise Creator 
would provide for the reduction and expulsion of a 
considerable amount of non-usuable material. 

I shall now undertake to point out the function of 
the lymphatic system, and to show that the liver, 
spleen and thyroid gland were devised for the more 
especial purpose of gathering-up and preparing for 
elimination such elements of the food as may find 
their way into the circulation in advance of that com¬ 
plete digestion, or liquefaction, which is essential to 
assimilation, haematization and cellular replenish¬ 
ment, or nutrition. 

I repeat that it is not at all unreasonable to sup¬ 
pose that the All-Wise Being, knowing in advance 
the frailties of his creatures, made ample provision 
for the reduction and elimination of what may be 
termed a reasonable amount of non-usuable material, 



FUNCTION OF THE LYMPHATICS 


199 


comprising, to say the least, as much of such as may 
be unavoidably introduced into the circulating 
system. 

The value of such a provision is evinced by the 
fact that under stress of circumstances both men and 
animals are liable to devour not only more food than 
they can digest, but substances which are practically 
indigestible. The result in either event is the intro¬ 
duction into the circulation of a corresponding 
amount of partially elaborated and therefore non- 
usable material. 

The non-usuable material with which the circula¬ 
tion of human beings is the more especially burdened 
belongs in some one or all of four categories; first, 
mucoids; second, carbohydrates; third, gelatinoids; 
fourth, albuminoids. 

THE FUNCTION- OF THE LYMPHATICS. 

By bearing in mind the fact that nutrition consists 
in the filling of the cells with nutrient matter, it will 
be seen that at the moment the nutrient matter is be¬ 
ing forced from the capillaries into the cells, as it is 
in the consummation of the nutritive process, some 
material must of necessity escape in the opposite di¬ 
rection—that is, into the interstitial spaces, the very 
points where the lymphatics originate. It will in the 
next place be seen that the stomata, or little mouths, 
by which the lymphatics originate stand ready to im¬ 
bibe the escaped material and return it by way of the 
lymph channels to the center of the circulating sys¬ 
tem, and that in passing through the trabeculae of 



2C0 


FUNCTION OF SPLEEN AND THYROID 


the lymph-nodes the albuminous element of the lymph 
is broken into those spheroidal particles which are 
called lymph corpuscles. 

THE FUNCTIONS OF THE SPLEEN. 

Having already shown that it is the peculiar func¬ 
tion of the lymphatic system to gather up materials 
which are forced out of the blood-vessels while 
nutrition is being effected and that the materials 
thus gathered up, together with the new ma¬ 
terials absorbed from the alimentary tract are 
emptied into the venous system, I shall be the better 
prepared to prove that the Spleen, Liver and Thyroid 
Gland co-operate in the performance of the very im¬ 
portant task of so changing the various kinds of non- 
usuable material that they may be gotten rid of in the 
shortest possible time, and in the most economical 
manner. The non-usuable materials in question have 
already been mentioned, and yet it may be well to 
repeat that they consist, as a rule, of an admixture of 
partially elaborated gelatin, fibrin, gluten, amylum, 
albumin and cellulose. 

At this juncture the reader will do well not only to 
recall the fact that the blood is “shunted,” so to 
speak, from the aorta through the spleen, but to care¬ 
fully re-read the foregoing quotations from Gray, 
Huxley and Dunham, in which event he will notice 
several very suggestive facts. For these authors have 
shown that after passing into the large trabeculae of 
the spleen, the arteries divide into small branches and 
that after penetrating the “pulp,” they “break up 



FUNCTION OF THE SPLEEN 


201 


into capillaries which do not anastomose with each 
other, ’ ’ but end abruptly, very much like the terminal 
pipe of a sewer system—facts which show that the 
blood of the splenic artery is for some reason emp¬ 
tied into the so-called pulp of the spleen. Equally 
significant is the further fact set forth in the fore¬ 
going quotations, that the radicles of the splenic veins 
originate in the “pulp” of the spleen, and in the same 
way that the arterial capillaries terminate—that is, 
they stand wide open, ready to receive anything that 
may seek to escape from the splenic prison, so to 
speak. The pains-taking student will in the next 
place note the fact set forth by Dunham, that “The 
pulp consists of a fine reticulum of delicate fibres 
and cells, with branching and communicating pro¬ 
cesses, in the meshes of which there are red blood- 
corpuscles, leucocytes in greater number than nor¬ 
mally present in the blood, and free amoeboid cells 
considerably larger than leucocytes, called the splenic 
cells.” 

For the sake of needed emphasis I repeat 
that the blood is shunted, as it were, from the 
aorta through the spleen and liver, as shown by the 
two arrows in Fig. 18, the one pointing from the aorta 
to the spleen on the right and the other from the 
spleen to the vena portae on the left. It is also gen¬ 
erally known that after entering the spleen the artery 
breaks up into arterioles and these into capillaries; 
that these vessels “do not anastomose,” but end ab¬ 
ruptly, like the terminal pipe of a sewer system, in 
the pulp of the spleen, so that materials passing 



202 


FUNCTION OF SPLEEN AND THYROID 


through them are emptied into the pulp spaces; that 
the materials thus deposited in the pulp consist for 
the most part of white blood corpuscles and larger 
bodies of a similar character called splenic corpuscles; 
that the capillaries forming the radicles of the splenic 
vein originate in the pulp by open mouths, as it were, 
and that the materials leaving the splenic pulp pass 
through these openings, or little mouths, into the 
splenic vein and thence to the liver. 

Now, what can be the meaning of the fact that the 
blood is shunted through the spleen and that it emp¬ 
ties into the pulp of this organ large numbers of 



“white cells” and “splenic corpuscles,” if not that 
it is the more especial purpose of the spleen to arrest 
and macerate, transform or destroy the materials in 
question? In consequence of much study of the sub¬ 
ject I am confident that a considerable amount of im¬ 
perfectly elaborated material finds its way into the 



FUNCTION OF THE SPLEEN 


203 


blood; that this is what we call serum albumin; that 
part of this is usuable while the rest is non-usuable; 
that nature has provided for the intra-vascular elab¬ 
oration of such and that most of this is accomplished 
in the pulp of the spleen, comprehending the reduc¬ 
tion of the usuable material to peptone or its equiva¬ 
lent, and the transformation of such indigestible and 
therefore useless materials as lignin, cellulose and 
coarse fibrous tissue into fibrinogen. Here is a 
change which belongs in the list of nature’s great 
economies, for materials which are far worse than 
useless are converted into a substance which not only 
subserves vital purposes in several well-known par¬ 
ticulars, but imparts to the blood, as I verily believe, 
its requisite consistency, or viscosity—the property 
that enables it not only to hold the haemocytes (red 
blood corpuscles) in suspension, but to favor the pass¬ 
age of nutrient matter into the cells, by establishing 
sufficient resistance in the capillaries to impart em¬ 
phasis to the osmotic action on which the filling of 
the cells depends, my theory of nutrition being the 
criterion. 

I would respectfully submit the opinion in passing, 
that the normal viscosity of the blood is much lower 
than we have supposed. According to the leading in¬ 
vestigators in this field, Hirsch, Beck, Determann and 
others, the co-efficient of the viscosity of normal hu¬ 
man blood is between 4.7 and 5.5. Nevertheless I be¬ 
lieve that the normal figure is not over 3.5 and that 
when it reaches the altitude of 4. to 5.5 it should be 
set down as somewhat abnormal, to say the least. At 



204 


FUNCTION OF SPLEEN AND THYROID 


any rate the range of viscosity in human blood is said 
to be from three to nine times that of distilled water, 
and since it is evident not only that there are at the 
present time but few if any people who are sufficiently 
normal to furnish a trustworthy standard, but that in 
all disease there is an excessive viscosity of the blood, 
I can but feel that I am right. It is a well-known fact 
that Fibrinogen subserves, whenever the oppor¬ 
tunity offers, the very important purpose of protect¬ 
ing abraded and lacerated tissues, and sealing rup¬ 
tured blood-vessels and that this is made possible by 
its coagulability under exposure. 

THE SPLEEN A SAFETY-VALVE. 

In my humble opinion the spleen performs the 
further and highly important service of mitigating 
the shock occasioned by a sudden rush of blood from 
the periphery to the center of the system—a func¬ 
tion that the healthy spleen is eminently capable of 
performing, as will be seen by reference to the well- 
known fact that it is so eminently elastic that it is 
capable of expanding to three times its normal size. 

According to the writer’s experiences, observa¬ 
tions and reasonings, the elasticity of the spleen is 
perfectly pregnant with perfectly discernible indica¬ 
tions. I have frequently noticed, for example, that in 
consequence of fright, or of a severe chill, or of the 
reception of “shocking intelligence,” a sense of full¬ 
ness or of pain is felt in the region of the spleen,—a 
fact which implies that the spleen acts the part of a 
safety-valve, preventing rupture of the heart and 



THE SPLEEN A SAFETY-VALVE 


205 


central blood-vessels by receiving within its highly 
elastic tissues and vessels a large percentage of the in¬ 
flowing blood. The correctness of this proposition 
will become all the more apparent as a result of a 
glance at the foregoing figure, on the right margin 
of which the spleen is shown partly encircled by a 
dotted line, which is intended to indicate the enlarge¬ 
ment that takes place, or should take place, in conse¬ 
quence of a sudden influx of blood. 

So long as the spleen remains in a normal condi¬ 
tion the life of the individual is proof against a sud¬ 
den determination of blood to the center of the cir¬ 
culating system. On the other hand, when the spleen 
has been deprived of its elasticity by either disease 
or engorgement, the rush of blood from peripheral to 
central regions is very apt to either rupture a vessel 
or paralyze the pulsating organ, and for the obvious 
reason that the safety-valve of the vital organism (the 
spleen) is not in working order. 

Great as this service certainly is, it pales into in¬ 
significance when compared with that practically con¬ 
tinuous performance described in the preceding 
pages—namely, the work of breaking-up, macerating 
and transforming into a less hurtful thing those 
matchless foes to life and health, which are poured 
into its pulp as, and for the purpose already stated— 
a service the need of which will be brought into great 
prominence in subsequent chapters of this work. 

THE FUNCTIONS OF THE LIVER. 

Medical men in general are well aware of the fact 
that amylaceous materials (glycogen, glucose and 



206 


FUNCTION OF SPLEEN AND THYROID 


starch granules) are found in various parts of the 
body and especially in the liver. In other words, it is 
well known that the hepatic juices respond, now and 
then, to the iodine test. Authorities not only state 
the fact that this material is converted into grape 
sugar, but express the opinion that it is utilized by the 
body. It is a singular fact, however, that they have 
not made good their contention by showing how this 
amylaceous product subserves any vital purpose. 

It is also well known that the blood carries a large 
percentage of fibrinogen; that this is derived from 
albumin, and that the formation of the same is con¬ 
stantly going on. Since fibrinogen is a perishable 
substance, it must be true that it is just as constantly 
being disposed of. But it appears that no authority 
has ventured an opinion as to the means whereby, the 
shape in which, or the channel through which, this 
substance is discharged from the precincts of vi¬ 
tality. Here, then, are several facts which have long 
been calling for explanation. 

In consequence of much study I have arrived at 
the conclusion that the liver was devised for the ex¬ 
press purpose of reducing undigested starch to gly¬ 
cogen and of converting both fibrinogen and glycogen 
into bile—a service which comprehends the highly 
economical proposition of turning essentially injuri¬ 
ous materials into a useful substance, for the bile is 
emptied into the duodenum, where its alkalinity is 
utilized in common with that of the pancreatic secre¬ 
tion in the neutralization of the acids of the food and 



FUNCTION OF THE THYROID 


207 


in the emulsification of oleaginous materials, or fats 
and oils. 

THE FUNCTION OF THE THYROID GLAND. 

There is no lack of reasons for the conclusion that 
in the progress of human life it becomes necessary to 
remove from the circulating system several other 
things which belong in the category of the non-usable 
—namely, surplus materials of the mucilaginous and 
gelatinous orders. For, it is scarcely possible for any 
man to keep so closely within the pathway of die¬ 
tetic rectitude as not to introduce into his system 
more materials of the kinds in question than the sys¬ 
tem can make use of. In the absence of a counteract¬ 
ing provision of some kind the flesh-eating men and 
animals would soon drift into some one of those trou¬ 
bles in which mucoid and colloid materials appear as 
a prominent feature of the clinical picture. 

I am fully persuaded that by means of its secre¬ 
tions, the thyroid gland paves the way for the elimi¬ 
nation of non-usuable colloid, and mucoid, or gelatin¬ 
ous and muciparous, materials—things which are 
eminently calculated to obstruct the channels of life, 
and which are responsible for those conditions which 
prevail in Exophthalmic Goitre, Myxedema and 
Colloid disease—namely, increased tension in the 
circulating system, or high blood pressure; increase 
in the frequency of the pulse; deficient nutrition; 
mental aberration; the puffing of the tissues here and 
there or everywhere as in myxedema, and the filling 



208 


FUNCTION OF SPLEEN AND THYROID 


of the orbits so as to displace the eyeballs, as in 
exophthalmic goiter. 

So long as the thyroid is sound and able to do its 
part in the elimination of non-usuable material, the 
gelatinous and muciparous materials introduced into 
the circulation for any reason, are promptly reduced 
and disposed of. But if the thyroid becomes disabled, 
the said materials are bound to accumulate in the 
body, producing some one or more of the troubles 
already referred to. 

RECAPITULATION. 

The conclusions at which I have arrived may be 
summarized by affirming, as I now do: 

First, that the lymphatics gather up and return 
to the blood any materials that may escape into the 
interstitial spaces at the time that nutrition is being 
effected; that the lymph is emptied into the venous 
system and that it is then conveyed to the emuncto- 
ries, by whose action it is renovated. 

Second, that it is the function of the spleen to 
arrest, macerate and transform surplus and non- 
usable albumin and albuminoids into fibrinogen. 

Third, that it is the function of the thyroid gland 
to prepare for elimination any non-usuable, colloid 
and muciparous materials that may find their way 
into the channels of life. 

Fourth, that it is the function of the liver to con¬ 
vert (by means of an enzyme of its own) glycogen, 
fibrinogen and reduced mucoid and colloid materials 



RECAPITULATION 


209 


into bile—a service which involves the transformation 
of highly dangerous materials into a substance (bile) 
which can be and is used in common with the pan¬ 
creatic secretion in the neutralization of the acids of 
the food and in the emulsification of oleaginous ma¬ 
terials, as already stated. 

Fifth, that the increased viscosity of the blood 
that obtains in so many diseases, is referable to the 
inability of the spleen to reduce surplus and non- 
usable albuminous and albuminoid materials to fibri¬ 
nogen, or to the inability of the liver to convert 
fibrinogen into bile, or to the inability of both of 
these organs to discharge their duties. 

Sixth, that glycosuria is referable in part to the 
inability of the liver to convert glycogen into bile, 
the amount of glycogenic material submitted to this 
organ for treatment in such cases being too great to 
permit of a successful outcome. 

Seventh, that albuminuria is referable to the su¬ 
perabundant production of serum albumin, and the 
consequent inability of the spleen to fully perform 
its function of converting the said material into 
fibrinogen. 

Verily, how reasonable, not to say incontestible is 
the proposition, that the Liver, Spleen and Thyroid 
Gland are co-workers in the renovation of the blood, 
and, hence, in the conservation of vital interests in 
general! 



CHAPTER X. 


THE VITAL STATUTES, OR LAWS AND REQUIREMENTS OF 
LIFE. 

In the light of the foregoing theory of life and of 
the general fund of medical information, it appears 
that the Laws of Life are, in substance, if not pre¬ 
cisely, as follows: 

1. All life begins with a cell or ovum. 

2. Every living organism, vegetable and animal, 
is in its essence an aggregation of cells, each cell being 
attached to other cells of the same class. 

3. Every living organism, vegetable and animal, 
is the offspring of two parent organisms, male and 
female. 

4. Every living organism, vegetable and animal, 
is composed of organized materials. 

5. Every living thing, vegetable and animal, de¬ 
pends for its growth and development upon organized 
material—namely, food. 

6. Plants aided by solar chemism prepare their 
own food, by converting the inorganic materials ob¬ 
tained from the earth and atmosphere into organic 
matter—vegetable protoplasm. 

7. The growth of plants depends in part upon an 
adequate quantity of water, which supplies the requi¬ 
site hydrogen, dissolves the earthy matters, and con¬ 
veys the dissolved materials to the organizing labo¬ 
ratories—the leaves. 


! 210 


THE LAWS OF LIFE 


211 


8. The food of animals consists of such organized 
materials as they are able to digest and appropriate 
in the growth and repair of their bodies, and in the 
development of their energies. 

9. The prime essential of the food of animals is 
that element from which the vital energies, physical, 
nervous and thermal, are developed—namely, carbon. 

10. Animals require in addition to food two in¬ 
organic substances—namely, water and oxygen, the 
former to serve as a solvent, diluent and detergent, 
and the latter as an oxidizer, combining with the car¬ 
bon of the food in the development of the vitomotive- 
power, nervous energy and animal heat. 

11. Plant respiration takes place in the leaves 
and consists in the absorption of carbon diox¬ 
ide, the dissociation of its elements, the appropria¬ 
tion of the carbon, and the elimination of the oxygen. 

12. Animal respiration takes place in the pul¬ 
monary organs and consists in the exchange of the in¬ 
generated carbon dioxide for oxygen. 

13. Assimilation consists in the transformation 
of thoroughly digested materials into animal tissues 
and is confined to the growth of the body and the re¬ 
pair of its damaged tissues. 

14. Nutrition consists in the refilling of the cells 
of which the muscular and nervous systems are com¬ 
posed with nutrient matter. 

15. The proper performance of the vital ma¬ 
chinery depends upon the complete and timely elimi¬ 
nation of all useless materials, from those produced 



212 


THE LAWS OF LIFE 


in the cells in the development of the vital energies, 
to such substances as may find their way into the 
circulation in advance of their complete digestion. 

16. The residual matters are discharged through 
the lungs, skin, bowels and kidneys, while all elements 
of the ingesta that find their way into the blood ves¬ 
sels in advance of complete peptonization are, as a 
rule, transformed into less harmful substances and 
then discharged by the liver—the albumin, lignin, 
fibrous tissue and cellulose into fibrin, the starch into 
glucose, and these in turn into bile, which is then 
passed into the duodenum and utilized in common 
with the pancreatic secretion in the neutralization of 
the acids of the food, and in the emulsification of 
oleaginous materials. 

17. The eliminating organs perform vicarious 
service, when necessary, one organ discharging ma¬ 
terial that another organ is not able to dispose of. 



CHAPTEE XI. 


THE NEW THEORY OF LIFE—ITS HARMONIES, REVELA¬ 
TIONS AND SUGGESTIONS. 

It may well be supposed that the reader will be 
able within himself to trace with ease and precision 
the commendatory features, practical, educational 
and iconoclastic, of the foregoing theory of life, and 
yet it may not be amiss to call attention to those 
characteristics which are particularly valuable and 
interesting. Reference is made to the following 
items: 

1. It embodies a practically complete and con¬ 
sistent explanation of the various facts and phenom¬ 
ena which are involved in the construction, nutrition, 
propulsion and renovation of the vital machine, and, 
hence, the data from which to construct both a reli¬ 
able code of vital laws and a true and eminently prac¬ 
tical science of medicine, embracing in particular the 
groundwork of physiology, prophylaxis, etiology, 
pathology and therapeutics. 

2. It is perfectly harmonious, both within itself 
and with the various principles and precepts of exact 
science. 

3. It is eminently complementary to the Doctrine 
of the Conservation of Energy, in that it shows; first, 
how energy is stored in food substances; second, to 
what element food owes its energy-dispensing attri¬ 
butes; third, how and where this element is com- 

213 


214 


THE NEW THEORY OF LIFE 


mingled with oxygen forming the red blood corpus¬ 
cles; fourth, how these sources of power are placed 
in position to subserve the wants of life, involving the 
explanation of the nutrition of the muscles and 
nerves; fifth, how the carbon and oxygen of the nu¬ 
trient matter thus stored in the cells are brought into 
chemical union, producing, not only the heat that 
warms the body, but the powers, both nervous and 
muscular, that serve to animate and propel it; sixth, 
how the Yitomotive-Power or muscular energy im¬ 
pinges upon the motor mechanism of the vital ma¬ 
chine with the effect of setting it in motion; seventh, 
where and how the waste products are produced, and 
eighth, how these materials are gathered up and 
borne to the emunctories, and thence to the outer 
world—all this with a logical fitness, a completeness 
of detail, and a degree of perspicacity, which will 
certainly appeal to the scientific mind as sufficient. 

4. It is in perfect harmony with the well known 
fact that scientific discovery involves the simplifica¬ 
tion as well as the explanation of the facts of experi¬ 
ence and observation. 

5. It shows that foods owe their value; first, to 
the organized carbon that they contain, and, second, 
to their capability of being reduced to that dialyzable 
and non-coagulable liquid called peptone. 

6. It draws a sharp line of demarkation between 
foods and condiments, leaving the hydrocarbons and 
the carbohydrates on the condiment side of the line 
of cleavage, there being nothing of the kind in the 



TWO IMPORTANT DISTINCTIONS 


215 


nutritive cells, as the duly critical student will readily 
perceive. 

7. It shows that there is a radical difference be¬ 
tween nutrition and assimilation —that the latter is 
confined to the growth of the body and the repair of 
its abraded and lacerated tissues, while the former is 
confined to the replenishment or refilling of the cells 
of the muscles and nerves; in short, it shows that the 
vital energies depend upon nutrition; that the vital 
structures depend upon assimilation, and that growth 
and repair from 8 pound babyhood to 140 pound man¬ 
hood comprehend an average assimilation of only six 
and two-sevenths pounds per annum; or about one- 
fourth of an ounce per day. 

8. It has disclosed an important distinction 
which had escaped us—namely, that the digestive 
fluid is not a ferment, but a powerful solvent—a fact 
which should be carefully noted and remembered, be¬ 
cause digestion reduces food to the diffusible state 
without depriving it of its organic properties, while 
fermentation renders it diffusible by reducing it to 
the inorganic and therefore useless state. 

Briefly: Digestion is solution; fermentation 

is DISINTEGRATION. 

9. It shows, as stated in a preceding chapter, that 
digestion of the food must be carried to such a state 
of perfection that the digested material shall be both 
perfectly diffusible and absolutely non-coagulable; 
that is, completely peptonized, in which condition it 
is not only free from the dangers of coagulation, but 



216 


THE NEW THEORY OF LIFE 


able to pass with ease through both the intestine-vas¬ 
cular walls and the infinitely finer tissues of which the 
walls of the cells are composed, thus reaching its des¬ 
tination, the cell-cavity; in other words, the food 
must be so completely peptonized that it will be both 
perfectly dialyzable and beyond the possibility of co- 
agulative concentration, and able, therefore, to main¬ 
tain its properties and subserve its purposes. 

10. It shows that the requisite fineness is attained 
when the nutrient material, or food, is in proper con¬ 
dition to be moulded into the matrices of the red blood 
corpuscles, which is done in its passage through the 
trabeculae of the spleen and lymphnodes, the meshes 
of these structures having the same function as the 
meshes of the seive-like diaphragm of the shot tower 
—that of breaking the material passing through them 
into small particles of uniform size. 

11. It shows that it is probable that the matrices 
of the red blood corpuscles imbibe oxygen, or oxy¬ 
gen-laden haemoglobin, as a sponge does a fluid of 
any kind, and that this imbibition of oxygen takes 
place in the pulmonary capillaries—a proposition 
which involves what appears to be a logical settlement 
of the much mooted question as to the “birth-place” 
of the red corpuscle. 

12. It shows that the corpuscles thus formed and 
endowed, consisting, as they do, of a combustible sub¬ 
stance (food), intimately associated with a u sup¬ 
porter of combustion” (oxygen), are the materials 
from which all the vital energies, physical, nervous 
and thermal, are derived, and in consequence of the 



HAEMOCYTIC PHILOSOPHY 


217 


reunion of the previously divorced elements thereof, 
carbon and oxygen. 

13. It shows that the object attained by the for¬ 
mation and oxygenation of the red corpuscle is the 
segregation and intimate comminglement of the 
requisite amounts of carbon (of the food), and oxy¬ 
gen (of the respired air), to form a non-residual ex¬ 
plosive compound—non-residual in the sense that 
there is just enough carbon and oxygen in each cor¬ 
puscle to form cakbon dioxide gas— the Vitomotive- 
Power—a provision whereby the affinities of these 
elements may be completely satisfied, chemically 
speaking; or, in other words, the carbon and oxygen 
exist in the fully elaborated and endowed nutrient 
matter (red corpuscles) in the proportion of one 
atom of carbon to two of oxygen—their chemical 
union finding symbolic representation in the familiar 
CO , 2 and dynamic expression in the animation and 
propulsion of the vital machine. 

14. It shows that in the replenishment of the 
cells the oxygen-laden nutrient materials (red cor¬ 
puscles) are passed by osmosis, either in their en¬ 
tirety or after their comminution and the blending 
of their component elements, from the capillaries 
through the cell-walls and into the cell-cavity; that 
the nutrition of the muscular and nervous systems 
is effected on the same principle; that the darker 
color of the voluntary muscles is due to the fact that 
their cells are large enough to permit their contents 
(arterial blood) to display its natural color-index; 
that the paler color of the involuntary muscles is due 



218 


THE NEW THEORY OF LIFE 


to the fact that the cells thereof are much smaller in 
their transverse dimension than those of the volun¬ 
tary system, involving a spreading of the colored 
material and the consequent lowering of the original 
color index, and that the want of color exhibited by 
the nerve cells and the axis cylinders of the nerve 
tracts, is referable to still greater attenuation of 
their nutrient contents. 

15. It involves the Key to morbid conditions, im¬ 
plying and with incontestible clearness and certitude, 
that that which is variously termed “blood stasis,’’ 
‘ ‘ congestion ’ ’ and L i capillary occlusion, ’ ’ is due to the 
obstructive action of imperfectly elaborated organic 
matter —materials which have not been fully pepton¬ 
ized, and are liable therefore to undergo either in- 
spissation or coagulation, the result in either case 
being the choking-up of the glands and capillaries, 
and most if not all that such a state of things as this 
naturally implies. 

16. It shows that all the waste matters of the 
body, save that which is discharged by the liver in the 
shape of bile, is produced within the cells of the mus¬ 
cles and nerves, being the ash that is left after the 
food has been oxidized, as it is in the development of 
the vital energies, and that the stimulation attending 
the use of flesh-foods is referable to the toxic prop¬ 
erties of their enmeshed waste products—that stimu¬ 
lation is the resentment that the vital organism dis¬ 
plays whenever the individual indulges in what may 
be called necrophagy. 

17. It shows, in the first place, that those struc- 



FUNCTIONS OF THE LYMPHATICS 


219 


tures on which the performance of the vital machine 
chiefly depends—namely, the muscles and nerves, are 
not destroyed in the development of the vital ener¬ 
gies, as we heretofore have supposed, but continue to 
exist and to perform their respective functions from 
the beginning to the end of life, provided they do not 
become the victims either of traumatic or morbific 
agencies, and, in the next place, that destruction of 
tissue is confined to parts which are exposed to abra¬ 
sion, the aggregate loss per diem or per month being 
very small. 

18. It suggests the following conclusions as to the 
purposes and performances of the lymphatic system 
and of the attending changes: First, that it is the 
function of the stomata (the openings in which the 
lymphatic vessels originate) to imbibe or gather up 
the material that must necessarily escape from the 
capillaries into the interstitial spaces on account of 
the pressure on which nutrition partly depends; sec¬ 
ond, that it is the function of the lymphatic vessels 
to convey the material taken up by the stomata to the 
center of the circulating system, so that it may be 
passed to the pulmonary organs to be renovated (re¬ 
lieved of its burden of waste matter), and again sent 
on its mission; third, that it is the function of the 
seive-like structures constituting the trabeculae of 
the spleen and lymph-nodes to mould the nutrient 
element of the lymph into “blood plates'’ as molten 
lead is broken into particles in passing through the 
wire network diaphragm of the shot tower; fourth, 
that these platelets are composed of nutrient matter, 



220 


THE NEW THEORY OF LIFE 


plus the oxygen and carbon dioxide carrying mate¬ 
rial called haemoglobin; sixth, that during their pass¬ 
age through the pulmonary capillaries these gas-car¬ 
rying corpuscles exchange the carbon dioxide (ab¬ 
sorbed by the stomata along with the other escaping 
materials) for oxygen; seventh, that the change thus 
effected finds visible expression in a change of color, 
the crimson attributable to carbon dioxide, giving 
place to the scarlet hue of the oxygen-laden, or “oxy- 
haemoglobinized, ’’ corpuscles. 

19. It settles the long existing dispute concern¬ 
ing the birth-place, and the death-place of the red 
corpuscles—showing that they are born, or completed, 
in the pulmonary capillaries, and, that they are de¬ 
stroyed in the cells of the muscles and nerves, produc¬ 
ing animal heat, nervous energy and muscular power. 

20. It involves the extremely important implica¬ 
tions: (a), that the living organism is composed en¬ 
tirely of organic matter; (b), that all the vital en¬ 
ergies, physical, nervous and thermal, are derived 
from organized material; (c), that the body requires 
only two inorganic substances—namely, oxygen and 
water, the water serving as a solvent, diluent and de¬ 
tergent, and the oxygen as a supporter of combustion 
—that oxidation of the carbon constituent of the 
blood on which the development of the vital energies 
depends; (d), that all inorganic substances, save 
water and oxygen, that we find in the body, from the 
supposedly innocuous sodium chloride on up to the 
evidently toxic carbon dioxide are purely waste 



DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FOODS AND POISONS 


221 


products, and being more or less deleterious, must be 
promptly expelled from the precincts of vitality, or 
else a corresponding amount of damage will most 
likely be experienced; (e), that animal heat, strictly 
speaking, is that alone which is produced within the 
nutrient cells of the muscles and nerves and in con¬ 
sequence of the oxidation of the carbon of food pre¬ 
viously stored therein. 

21. It draws a sharp line of demarkation be¬ 
tween foods and poisons—showing that the food of 
any given animal consists of such organized material 
as it is able to properly digest, in the sense that it 
(the food) is rendered perfectly diffusible, and that 
all substances which cannot be so reduced should be 
considered essentially poisonous, and for two rea¬ 
sons ; first, the body must expel all such at the cost 
of a corresponding waste of vital power; second, that 
the presence of any useless material in the circulation 
must necessarily interfere with the blood flow and, 
per consequence, with the nutritive and eliminative 
functions. 

22. It shows that the athlete owes his plumpness, 
power and prestige to the fact that his nutritive cells 
are well-filled, and that the emaciated owes his thin¬ 
ness, not to any diminution in the number of the cells, 
but to the fact that the cells are almost empty, the 
replenishment of these structures having been pre¬ 
vented in some way—by imperfect digestion, by ob¬ 
struction of the circulation, or by want of an adequate 
supply of food. 



222 


THE NEW THEORY OF LIFE 


23. It shows that the doctrine of a vis vitae, held 
by Liebig and his contemporaries and recently re¬ 
vived to some extent, is utterly erroneous; that while 
it is true that there is an ego or inherent vital prin¬ 
ciple, it is also true that the movements of the living 
organism are due to the intra-cellular production and 
action of the vitomotive-power—that energy-display¬ 
ing agent which is known to science as carbon diox¬ 
ide, and to the world at large as carbonic acid gas. In 
short, it has come to be known that the Creator did in 
the very beginning what man has but recently begun 
to do—namely, employed the expansive energy of 
carbon dioxide gas as a motive power. 

24. It shows that the muscular fibrils are not 
“endowed with the property of contractility,” as 
authors have supposed, but act as they are acted upon 
by the vitomotive-power. 

25. It is suggestive of the conclusion that man, 
the most refined of all creatures, requires for his 
sustenance in general and for the maintenance of his 
intellectual faculties in particular, the most delicate 
of all food substances. 

It must now be fairly evident that the New Vital 
Philosophy set forth in these pages, has supplied ihe 
missing LINK in the Doctrine of the Conservation of 
Energy, by disclosing not only the way in which, and 
the means whereby energy is stored in the food we eat, 
but the principles involved in the transformation of 
food-energy into vital power, comprehending the 
principles involved in the construction, nutrition, in- 



THE RADIANCE OF DISCOVERY 


223 


nervation, propulsion and renovation of the vital 
organism. 

The eminent English Scientist, Professor John 
Tyndall, remarked many years ago that: “ There 

IS NO DISCOVERY SO LIMITED AS NOT TO ILLUMINATE 

something beyond itself.” And it will he seen upon 
due and impartial examination of the remaining vol¬ 
umes of this work, that the foregoing generalization 
is not an exception to the rule. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE VALIDITY OF THE NEW VITAL PHILOSOPHY. 

A summary of the more Important Facts, Argu¬ 
ments and Circumstances that justify the Adop¬ 
tion and Promulgation of the New Vital Philoso- 
phy. 

Within the twenty-odd centuries that the medical 
sciencies have been in process of development, a great 
many opinions, theories and speculations, wise and 
otherwise, have been advanced. In every instance of 
the kind the question of validity has very properly 
obtruded itself upon the attention of all concerned, 
and it has so happened that nearly everything thus 
far propounded has not been able to withstand the 
exactions of the court of validity, so to speak. 

With the view of escaping the chagrin attendant 
upon such an outcome as that, I have earnestly en¬ 
deavored to settle aright the question as to the trust¬ 
worthiness of the Vital Philosophy set forth in the 
foregoing pages. In every attempt of the kind, I 
have proceeded in harmony with the not unreason¬ 
able assumption already referred to—namely, that 
the validity of any given scientific hypothesis de¬ 
pends, in the last analysis, not upon the dictum of 
any authority, however eminent, nor upon the facts 
of experience and observation, nor upon the number 
or character of its defenders, nor, yet, upon the length 
of time that it may have passed unchallenged, but 

224 


A SEARCHING EXAMINATION 


225 


upon its truths; its harmonies; its logical features; 
its explanatory capabilities; its simplifying at¬ 
tributes ; the success that attends its practical appli¬ 
cation; the absence or rareness of contradictory oc¬ 
currences, and last, but not least, upon its conclu¬ 
siveness— that is, upon its ability to settle once for all 
the various questions that belong within the province 
that it proposes to govern. 

In the prosecution of this purpose, I have not only 
repeatedly examined my conclusions in the light of 
the exact sciences, but consulted many recognized au¬ 
thorities, performed many experiments, and con¬ 
structed a number of illustrative mechanical devices. 
Attention is now invited to the more important of the 
testimonials thus developed. 

It has been found, for example, that the foregoing 
propositions regarding the storage of energy in 
plants and the transformation of the energy thus 
stored into the vitomotive-power are not only in per¬ 
fect harmony with, but eminently complementary to, 
the Doctrine of the Conservation of Energy. It is 
perfectly evident that Dr. Mayer’s much lauded and 
justly celebrated scientific doctrine has always been 
open to the objection of being incomplete. On the 
other hand, it is a perfectly discernible fact that the 
doctrines advanced in the foregoing pages have sup¬ 
plied the missing links in that justly celebrated doc¬ 
trine, by showing how energy is stored in the food we 
eat; how the food is prepared for vital uses; how nu¬ 
trition is effected; how food-energy is transformed 
into Muscular Energy, or the Yitomotive-Power; 



226 


VALIDITY OF THE NEW VITAL PHILOSOPHY 


what this power is, and how it sets the vital machinery 
in motion. 

SEARCHING INTERROGATIONS. 

It is quite probable that those who are not very 
familiar with those doctrines which have earned the 
plaudit of being absolutely correct and, hence, are 
called the Exact Sciences, will feel disposed to pro¬ 
pound some such interrogations as the following: 

How do you know that the storage of energy in 
plant substance comprehends the breaking-up of 
molecules of carbon dioxide and hydrogen oxide, the 
elimination of the oxygen and the admission of the 
carbon and hydrogen into the organic compact ? How 
do you know that carbon is the energy-dispensing 
element of food, and that the development of the vital 
energies depends upon the intracellular reunion of 
those elements—carbon and oxygen—which were sep¬ 
arated in the event of plant-growth? How do you 
know that Nutrition consists in the filling and refill¬ 
ing of the cells with a properly proportioned com- 
minglement of food and oxygen ? How do you know 
that Nervous Energy acts the part of an electric 
spark, causing the carbon and oxygen of nutrient 
matter stored in the cells to unite chemically and that 
the gas thus produced forces the muscles to contract ? 
In short, can you furnish a duly satisfactory or 
strictly trustworthy proof of any one of your claims 
regarding the storage of energy in the food we eat, 
and the transformation of the energy thus stored 
into the vital energies ? 

These questions are eminently pertinent and it 



A SPLENDID VERIFICATION 


227 


gives me much pleasure to be able to answer them, in 
the affirmative—declaring that they are in exact ac¬ 
cord with the exact sciences, as the established usages 
of the scientific domain demand of all investigators 
who desire recognition as such. In other words, I am 
proud of the fact that my theories rest upon the same 
kind of a foundation that underlies the various 
branches of science which are known to be exact and 
dependable—namely, upon a well-defined histological 
concept, supplemented by a complete chain of logical 
and explanatory data. Moreover, the New Vital 
Philosophy is not only founded upon a chain of rea¬ 
soning which is without so much as a single missing- 
link, if I may venture to pass upon the proposition, 
but has found abundant verification in the facts of 
experience and observation—in the splendid success 
that has attended its practical application, and in the 
practically complete absence of what may justly be 
deemed contradictory experiences. 

FORCEFUL ANSWERS. 

Be it remembered, to begin with, that the exact 
sciences, one and all, rest, not upon facts, but upon 
a mental picture or logical concept of the forces and 
principles on which the facts depend. The Physical 
and Chemical sciences are universally regarded as 
exact and dependable, and yet the basic principles of 
these sciences —gravitation and chemical affinity — 
are entirely beyond the range of ocular inspection. 
The existence and performance of these agencies were 
determined by mental pictures and logical proced- 



228 


VALIDITY OF THE NEW VITAL PHILOSOPHY 


ures. Nobody has even seen with the fleshy organ of 
vision either gravitation or chemical affinity, and yet 
no intelligent person of today doubts either their ex¬ 
istence or their capability. Nobody has ever viewed 
with the fleshy organ of vision, or by means of the 
microscope those minute particles of matter which 
are termed atoms and molecules, and yet the existence 
of both are undisputed and indisputable. In short, 
the underlying forces and basic verities of both 
physics and chemistry are entirely beyond the range 
of visual perception, and yet they are so completely 
open to mental inspection that the correctness of 
these sciences has never been challenged. 

Then again, it is universally realized that the 
marvelous inventions with which the world of man¬ 
kind has been blessed, existed in the mind of the in¬ 
ventors before they were fashioned in metal or wood 
or other material. The inventor starts out by draw¬ 
ing upon the chart of his imagination a more or less 
complete picture of the machine he proposes to con¬ 
struct, and in the imaginative way applies the power, 
witnesses its performance and examines the finished 
products. And since the mind of man is able to see 
a machine that does not actually exist, what reason 
can there be for refusing to believe that the human 
mind is able to penetrate the intricacies and profundi¬ 
ties of a machine that is already constructed and in 
operation—of such a contrivance, for example, as that 
which is called the Living Organism? If it be true 
that physical science owes both its origination and 
its verification to mental operations, perceptive and 



A FRUITFUL COMPARISON 


229 


logical, what reason can there be for rejecting the 
similarly originated, equally logical and more easily 
verified doctrines now advanced in explanation of 
vital phenomena ? 

Verily, it does not require an extraordinary im¬ 
aginative capacity to enable a man to see with the 
eye of the mind not only every structural detail of 
the vital machinery, from the bony frame work to 
the power-generating-and-dispensing cells, and from 
the imbibition of food and oxygen on up to the per¬ 
formance of the countless cylinders (cells) that Na¬ 
ture has devised for the propulsion of the animated 
machine. 

That the reader may see that the New Vital 
Philosophy set forth in the preceding pages rests 
upon the same kind of a foundation that underlies 
the physical sciences, attention is invited to the fol¬ 
lowing extract from an address delivered a few years 
ago by one of the most eminent physicists of modern 
times, Prof. Thomas H. Huxley, Fellow of the Royal 
Society of England: 

THE PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 

“All physical science starts from certain postu¬ 
lates. One of them is the objective existence of a 
material world. It is assumed that the phenomena 
which are comprehended under this name have a 
4 substratum’ of extended, impenetrable, mobile sub¬ 
stance, which exhibits the quality known as inertia, 
and is termed matter. Another postulate is the uni¬ 
versality of the law of causation; that nothing hap¬ 
pens without a cause (that is, a necessary precedent 



230 


VALIDITY OF THE NEW VITAL PHILOSOPHY 


condition), and that the state of the physical uni¬ 
verse, at any given moment is the consequence of its 
state at any preceding moment. Another is that any 
of the rules or so-called 4 laws of nature,’ by which 
the relation of phenomena is truly defined, is true for 
all tune. The validity of these postulates is a prob¬ 
lem of metaphysics; they are neither self-evident nor 
are they, strictly speaking, demonstrable. The justi¬ 
fication of their employment, as axioms of physical 
philosophy, lies in the circumstance that expectations 
logically based upon them are verified, or, at any rate, 
not contradicted, whenever they can be tested 
by experience.”—See Smithsonian Report for 1887, 
page 66. 

Prof. Huxley was right in saying: 

“The validity of these postulates is a problem of 
metaphysics” and that “the justification of their em¬ 
ployment, as axioms of physical philosophy, lies in 
the circumstances that expectations logically based 
upon them are verified, or at any rate, not contra¬ 
dicted. whenever they can be tested by experience.” 

VITAL METAPHYSICS. 

Very similar specifications may be filed in sup¬ 
port of the New Vital Philosophy, the details of 
which are set forth in the preceding pages. For in 
the first place, it has been abundantly demonstrated 
in the last fifteen years that calculations logically 
based on them are, as a rule, either verified or not 
contradicted, and in the next place, that they are 
mentally verifiable. Nobody can view with the physi¬ 
cal organ of vision the vitomotive-power and its 
correlated energies at work, but any man of average 



LIFE IN MENTAL PERSPECTIVE 


231 


imaginative capacity can witness the operation of 
these agencies by bringing the metaphysical organ of 
vision—the eye of the mind—into action. By this 
means he can see the solar beam splitting the carbon 
dioxide molecule into its elements in the event of 
plant growth, leaving the carbon in possession of the 
plant and sending the oxygen back into the atmos¬ 
phere to await the opportunity to reclaim its divorced 
companion; he can see the carbon (of the food) 
brought into intimate association with its former 
companion (oxygen) in the event of the completion—- 
oxygenation—of the matrices of the red blood cor¬ 
puscles ; he can see these newly developed corpuscular 
magazines of energy in their journeyings from the 
pulmonary capillaries, where they are completed, 
through the arterial system to the terminal capillaries 
thereof, and from these to the interior of the nutritive 
cells; he can see the tiny nervo-electric spark solemn¬ 
ize the nuptials of the carbon and oxygen by “ touch¬ 
ing off:” this magazine of nutritive explosives, and 
hear, if he will, the gladsome rejoicings of the occa¬ 
sion in the shape of the muscular “detonations” re¬ 
ferred to but not explained in Prof. Marey’s “Animal 
Mechanism”; he can see the energies thus produced— 
animal heat and the vito-motive-power—warming 
and actuating the vital organism; he can see the 
agent that gave rise to these actions, the supposedly 
unimportant, yet all-important C0 2 , wending its way 
from the scene of its paradoxical exploits to the outer 
world, and thence by way of the atmosphere to the 
court in which divorcement is to be re-enacted—the 



232 


VALIDITY OF THE NEW VITAL PHILOSOPHY 


plant world; all this is seen, and just as plainly as if 
it had been viewed by the anatomical organ of vision. 
In short, the time has come when the eye that wit¬ 
nesses the operations of gravity and chemical affinity 
may behold the vastly more important operations of 
the vitomotive-power and its co-workers, the color 
animalis and the nervous influence. In other words, 
as the physicist sees gravitation producing the mar¬ 
vels of the realms celestial and terrestrial, and as the 
chemist sees chemical affinity working the wonders of 
disintegration and crystalization, so the medical phil¬ 
osopher may now see the Vitomotive-power and its 
correlated agencies working the wonders of animated 
existence, and, per contra, the nature, origin and 
modus operandi of the emissaries of disease and 
death, including agencies which had for centuries 
escaped detection, as the sequel will show. 

THE REALISTIC DIAGRAM. 

For the purpose of implanting in the minds of my 
visiting friends a distinct and permanent impression 
of the great truths that nature has surrendered in 
consequence of my interrogations, I have constructed 
and mounted in my office what may be termed the 
Realistic Diagram of the vital organs and processes, 
and for the reason that it presents to the eye a picture 
of the vital fluids in their natural colors and in 
motion. This diagram is shown in Figure 19 and is 
a copy of the schematic figure presented in the fifth 
chapter. The diagram in question is so arranged 
that the spectator sees a liquid of proper color to 



FUNCTIONAL ACTIVITIES ILLUSTRATED 


233 


represent the chyle flowing from the receptaculum 
chyli by way of the thoracic duct into the subclavian 



Fig. 19. 


vein and through this into the right cavities of the 
heart; he then sees the dark (venous) blood with its 




















234 


VALIDITY OF THE NEW VITAL PHILOSOPHY 


corpuscular elements flowing from the right side of 
the heart through the pulmonary artery and into the 
pulmonary organs; he sees it emerge from the lungs 
(where it had exchanged its carbon dioxide for oxy¬ 
gen, and assumed the color of arterial blood) and 
then pass into the left cavities of the heart; he then 
sees it flowing from the left auricle, by way of a ves¬ 
sel which represents the arterial system, to the capil¬ 
laries and from the capillaries into the cell of a mus¬ 
cular fibril, thus illustrating nutrition; he sees the 
waste matter passing from the cell into the distal end 
of the capillary and thence into the vein, the blood 
again becoming dark in color; he sees the venous 
blood flowing into and out of each of the emunctories 
—namely, the skin, kidney, liver, lungs and bowel, 
thus illustrating the removal of the perspirable, the 
renal, the biliary, the gaseous (carbon dioxide) and 
the ingenerated fecal matter. 

A brief outline has now been given of that which 
is believed to be the only possible explanation of the 
normal activities of the living organism. It will be 
seen upon due examination that this interpretation 
of vital phenomena is susceptible of very extensive 
and convincing elaboration—that it fairly bristles 
with suggestions and of the most practical and satis¬ 
fying order. In short, it will be seen that it casts a 
flood of light into the hitherto impenetrable darkness 
of the vital realm. 

The feasibility of the foregoing explanation of 
the phenomenon of muscular contraction has been 
demonstrated to some extent by means of the Myo- 



MUSCULAR CONTRACTION ILLUSTRATED 


235 


motor, a mechanical device which was designed by 
the writer for this particular purpose. This contriv¬ 
ance is shown in perspective in Fig. 20, and consists 
for the most part, as the reader will readily perceive, 
of a frame-work A, a wheel and shaft B, and an arti¬ 
ficial muscle C. The muscle is made of thin sheet 
rubber, or gum elastic, overlaid with a net-work of 
silk thread, which represents the fascia, or investing 
membrane, of a muscle. The lower end of the muscle 



Fig. 20. 


is attached to the base of the frame, and the upper end 
to a crank mounted on the front end of the above 
named shaft. The rear end of this shaft carries an 
eccentric, which operates the valve by which the 
energizing agent, or motive power, is admitted and 
controlled. The energizing agent is either com¬ 
pressed air or freshly generated carbon dioxide gas, 




236 


VALIDITY OF THE NEW VITAL PHILOSOPHY 


as fancy or convenience may dictate. The agent se¬ 
lected is passed at such intervals as the aforesaid 
valve may determine into the interior of the muscle, 
which structure is forced by the expanding air, or gas, 
to undergo, for reasons already stated, the same kind 
of changes that we see in muscular contraction, and 
with the effect of so impinging upon the aforesaid 
crank as to cause the shaft and the wheel mounted 
thereon to rotate. 

THE SUPREME TESTIMONIAL. 

The various facts and illustrations now submitted 
in attestation of the validity of the New Vital Phil¬ 
osophy, though undeniably impressive, are much less 
so than the results attending its practical application. 
Reference is made, in the first place, to the fact that 
obedience to its dictates is rewarded by good health, 
and in the next place, to the fact that it casts a flood 
of light into the darkest recesses and remotest rami¬ 
fications of the morbid state, elucidating those prob¬ 
lems which pertain to the origination, progression 
and fatal termination of disease, and which have for 
centuries baffled all investigation and defied all un¬ 
derstanding. It is well-known in all well-informed 
medical circles that our authorities have never ex¬ 
plained that primary lesion and forerunner of all 
disease, from Colds to Consumption which is termed 
CONGESTION. 

Dr. B. Ward Richardson, of London, England, a 
physician and author of world-wide celebrity, is 



AN IMPORTANT ADMISSION 


237 


quoted by the Editor of the Review of Reviews as 
saying: 

“If we could solve the mystery why a man takes 
cold, and why he recovers from a cold, the influenza 
would be no mystery. Colds are the origins of three- 
fourths of our acute diseases, but their coming and 
going is an entire mystery which medical science has 
not yet been able to solve.’’ 

In short, by reference to the subject matter of the 
second grand division, or part two, of this work 
the reader will see that the New Vital Philosophy has 
cast a flood of light upon pathological phenomena, as 
already stated, elucidating not only the problems to 
which Dr. Richardson refers, but the gravest of all 
morbid processes, by disclosing the nature, origin and 
modus operandi of the active and hitherto unsus¬ 
pected cause of disease—the material that gives rise 
to congestion, paves the way for infection, defeats 
digestion and elimination, and gives rise to all else, 
practically speaking, that these conditions naturally 
imply In short, a reference to the second and third 
parts of this work will make evident the fact that the 
New Vital Philosophy has not only disclosed the na¬ 
ture, origin and action of catarrhal matter, hya¬ 
line bodies, tubercles and cancer cells, but event¬ 
uated in the formulation of a new and highly rational 
Remedial Philosophy, or System of Prophylaxis and 
Therapeusis. 

I have labored incessantly for the space of an or¬ 
dinary life-time with the view of bringing Medicine, 
the most important of all human interests, to such a 



238 


VALIDITY OF THE NEW VITAL PHILOSOPHY 


state of perfection that the motto “lux mentis 
scientia” (Science the Light of the Mind) will be as 
applicable to it as it is to any item in the category of 
Natural Sciences. And while much remains to be 
done, as I shall show later on in this work, I venture 
the hope that the world will eventually if not imme¬ 
diately realize that my labors and aspirations have 
not been entirely fruitless. 



PART TWO. 

THE NEW ETIOLOGY AND PATHOLOGY. 

Explains the Causation of Diseases in general by 
Pointing out the basic and hitherto Unsuspected 
cause thereof—showing that all Congestion, In¬ 
fection, Tumefaction, Inflammation, Transuda¬ 
tion, Tuberculosis, Carcinosis and Fibrosis depend 
upon a species of* Viscid Waste Matter which has 
been termed pathouen. 


239 



‘PART TWO. 


INTKODTJCTION. 

The history of every human being, healthy or un¬ 
healthy, is written in terms of energy. The history 
of the normal man finds expression in terms indica¬ 
tive of the possession of the vital energies—namely, 
vim, vigor, vitality, vivacity, versatility, mentality, 
ingenuity, pugnacity, strength, endurance, animal 
heat, muscular power and nervous energy. The his¬ 
tory of the abnormal man is written in terms ex¬ 
pressive of a loss of the vital energies and properties 
—namely, languor, lassitude, debility, idiocy, imbe¬ 
cility, senility, insanity, mental aberration, prostra¬ 
tion, exhaustion and death. 

Certain diseases begin with an almost imper¬ 
ceptible decline of the vital energies and terminate 
with the instantaneous extinguishment of the vital 
forces—a sudden blotting-out of human life, which 
has increased in the frequency of its occurrence until 
it has assumed enormous proportions. A con¬ 
siderable number of diseases begin with a very per¬ 
ceptible but supposedly inconsequential decline of 
the vital energies, proceed with a more or less obvious 
augmentation of the evidences of the trouble, and all 
too frequently terminate with that complete oblitera¬ 
tion of the vital energies and properties, called death 
—death of the tissues or of the entire organism. In 

241 


242 


PART TWO—INTRODUCTION 


short, Life is a display of energy; Disease is a loss of 
energy; Death is a negation of the vital energies, as 
repeatedly stated in part one of this work. 

For the sake of much needed emphasis I repeat 
that the first and most conspicuous symptom or char¬ 
acteristic of disease is a decline of the vital energies 
and activities, the extraordinary activities of the 
febrile and spasmodic states being not a real, but an 
apparent exception—merely the flaring of a flame, 
as it were, which fades away as fast as the inflam¬ 
mable material on which it depends is consumed. In 
short, all disease, from the simplest to the most com¬ 
plex and problematic is found upon ultimate analysis 
to consist of loss of vitality, structural or propulsive, 
or both together. It may therefore be said that in 
every age of the world’s history the principal object 
of medical investigation has been, or should have 
been, the determination of the agencies that antag¬ 
onize the vital energies and structures, exhausting 
the one and impairing the integrity of the other, and 
with the all too frequent result of a complete wreck¬ 
age of both. 

FALSE KEYS AND BLASTED HOPES. 

Something more than a half-century ago, when 
the present Science of Medicine was promulgated, it 
was confidently believed, as stated in the preceding 
part of this work, that the keys to the problems of 
health and disease had been obtained; but the appli¬ 
cation of these suppositional keys, embracing more 
than fifty years of strenuous and pains-taking effort, 



FALSE KEYS AND BLASTED HOPES 


243 


has proved to be worse than abortive, as the appalling 
increase of disease has certainly shown. 

The mystery involved in this unexpected and de¬ 
plorable outcome has completely baffled investigators 
in general—not because it is essentially insoluble, but 
for the simple reason that the keys, or doctrines, on 
which they relied for success were false and mislead¬ 
ing. Having the utmost confidence in those grand 
men who formulated the fundamental postulates of 
Modern Medicine, medical investigators in general 
have gone on for the greater part of a century in the 
attempt to overcome the difficulties with which they 
were confronted by increasing their knowledge of 
facts, when the thing needed was a code of principles 
which would explain the facts already in their 
possession. 

That the real key to morbid phenomena has been 
obtained and set forth in part one of this work is a 
proposition the correctness of which will hardly be 
disputed after an impartial examination has been 
made of the facts and explanations to be found in the 
remaining portion of this work. For it will be seen 
that the light afforded by the former generalization 
has led not only to the detection of the fallacies which 
are responsible for the increase of disease, but to the 
formation of another generalization which explains 
the mysteries and perplexities involved in the on¬ 
coming and progression of diseases in general by 
pointing out the active and hitherto unsuspected 
cause thereof. In other words, the present volume 
will disclose the all-important fact that certain mate- 



244 


PART TWO—INTRODUCTION 


rials which are found in the blood and are universally 
regarded as essential to life are in reality the cause 
par excellence of the decline of the vital energies 
and the dissolution of the vital structures, producing 
these results by interfering with vital operations 
in general and with nutrition and elimination in 
particular. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

THE EXISTING THEORIES CRITICALLY EXAMINED. 

Numerous and Surprising Disclosures Regarding the 
Groundwork of the Existing Biology, Physi¬ 
ology and Pathology. 

Those doctrines which are generally regarded as 
the fundamentals of Biology and Physiology, and, 
hence, of Dietetics and Nutrition, are the Respiratory 
Food Theory, the Doctrine of Metabolism, the Nitro¬ 
genous Food Theory and the Cell Theory. These 
theories were advanced, it will he remembered, by 
such able and reputable investigators as Professors 
Justus von Liebig, Schleiden, Schwann, Yon Mohl, 
Kolliker, Nageli, Bischoff, Heinrich de Barry, Max 
Schulte, Unger, Reichert, Remak and Rudolph Vir¬ 
chow, the author of “Cellular Pathology” and of the 
famous physiological aphorism, “Omnis cellula e 
cellula.” 

By reason of the incontestible learning and pro¬ 
bity of these men and of their fellow laborers in the 
interest of science and humanity, both the medical 
profession and the general public have been remark¬ 
ably faithful in the attempt to live in accordance 
with their teaching. Neither pains nor expense has 
been spared in the effort to avoid disease-producing 
agencies and to build up the vital structures, and yet 
we are confronted by the undeniable fact that there 
has been an enormous increase of disease, sweeping 

245 



246 


EXISTING THEORIES CRITICALLY EXAMINED 


all classes, professional and non-professional, into 
untimely graves. And what can this mean if not that 
the doctrines on which we have been depending for 
guidance are radically wrong, leading us not into 
health and longevity, but into the confines of disease 
and death? 

Let us proceed, therefore, to examine these the¬ 
ories in the light not of authority, but of reason and 
common sense. 

THE DOCTRINE OF METABOLISM. 

The theory of Metabolism, or tissue metamor¬ 
phosis, involves the claim that all the tissues of the 
body, the osseous structures not excepted, are con¬ 
stantly being oxidized and rebuilt from new material, 
thus renewing in a short time the entire body. 

Steele’s New Chemistry (pages 36-7) refers to the 
changes that the body is supposed to undergo as 
follows: 

“A man weighing 150 lbs., has 64 lbs. of muscle. 
This will be burned in about 80 days of ordinary 
labor. As the heart works day and night, it burns out 
in about a month. So that we have a literal ‘new 
heart’ every thirty days. We thus dissolve, melt 
away in time, and only the shadow of our bodies can 
be called our own. They are like the flame of a lamp, 
which appears for a long time the same, since it is 
‘ceaselessly fed as it ceaselessly melts away.’ The 
rapidity of this change in our bodies is remarkable. 
Says Dr. Draper: ‘Let a man abstain from water 
and food for an hour, and the balance will prove he 
has become lighter. ’ This action of O, so destructive 



METABOLISM AUTHORITATIVELY EXPLAINED 


247 


•—wasting ns away constantly from birth to death, is 
yet essential to our existence. Why is this ? Here is 
the glorious paradox of life. We live only as we die. 
The moment we cease dying, we cease living. All our 
life is produced by the destruction of our bodies. No 
act can be performed except by the wearing away of 
a muscle. No thought can be evolved except at the 
expense of the brain. Hence the necessity for food to 
supply the constant waste of the system, and for sleep 
to give nature a time to repair the losses of the day. 
Thus, also we see why we feel exhausted at night and 
refreshed in the morning.”—By permission of the 
American Book Company, Washington Square, New 
York (Publishers). 

Steele’s Physiology declares that: 

“Wherever there is work to be done or repairs to 
be made there the oxygen is needed. It stimulates to 
action, and tears down all that is worn out. In this 
process it combines with and actually burns out part 
of the muscles and other tissues, as wood is burnt in 
a stove.” 

Further on this author says: 

“The heat of the body is mainly produced as we 
have already seen, by the action of the oxygen within 
us. Each capillary tube is a tiny stove, where oxygen 
is combining with the tissues of the body. Every 
contraction of a muscle develops heat, the latent heat 
being set free by the breaking up of the tissue.”— 
Steele’s Hygienic Physiology, pp. 120-21. Edition 
1889. By permission of the publishers, the American 
Book Company, New York. 

Says Grindon: “Every molecule of muscle, and 
bone, and brain is an ephemeron; our entire fabric is 



248 


EXISTING THEORIES CRITICALLY EXAMINED 


taken to pieces and rebuilt some seven or eight times 
before we leave it.” 

Says Huxley: “All parts of the body are con¬ 
stantly being oxidized, or, in other words, are con¬ 
stantly burning, some more rapidly and fiercely than 
others.”—Huxley’s Physiology, by permission of the 
publishers, Macmillan & Co., New York. 

Says Tyndall: “While we inhale, the oxygen 
passes across the cell-walls of the lungs and mixes 
with the blood, by which it is carried through the 
body. When we exhale, we pour out from the lungs 
the carbonic acid produced by slow combustion of our 
bodies. To this slow combustion we owe our animal 
heat. Carbonic acid may be regarded as the rust of 
the body, which is continually cleared away by the 
lungs.” 

Bartley testifies to the same effect as follows, 
page 24: 

“In an ordinary fire, the heat produced is due to 
the chemical action going on between the oxygen of 
the air, and the carbon and hydrogen of the fuel. 
Animal heat is largely due to a similar cause—that is, 
to chemical action going on in the muscles, glands, 
brain and, in fact, all the tissues; not, as formerly 
taught by Liebig, by direct combustion of the food 
by the oxygen of the air, but by oxidation of the dif¬ 
ferent tissues whenever they are called upon to exer¬ 
cise their functions.”—Medical Chemistry, by Prof. 
Elias H. Bartley, B. S. M. D. Ph. G., by permission 
of the publishers, P. Blakiston Sons & Co., Phila¬ 
delphia. 

The literature of our day is replete with refer¬ 
ences, both pathetic and philosophic, to what Steele 



METABOLISM ARRAIGNED 


249 


refers to in the foregoing quotation as “the glorious 
(?) paradox of life.” 

I have inserted an interrogation point in the 
clause here quoted, for the reason that this doctrine is 
the most questionable thing of the kind that can be 
named. It will be seen upon due examination that 
this so-called glorious paradox is not only baseless, 
but extremely injurious in its effect. Its hurtful¬ 
ness is largely due to the fact that it has a sufficient 
resemblance to the truth to pass as such, when it is 
in reality false and productive of pernicious sugges¬ 
tions: First, that the body is constantly being torn 
down; second, that it must be rebuilt, and, third, that 
this calls for adequate supplies of the tissue-building 
foods. Believing all this to be true and imperative, 
the average person of today is at all times more or 
less anxious, lest his strength will fail or his body will 
be torn down faster than it can he rebuilt. And in 
order to evade these purely imaginary disasters, he 
is careful to consume every day, whether at work or 
not, and whether the requisite appetite is present or 
absent, what he considers the proper quantity of the 
so-called tissue-building foods—meats, eggs, cereals 
and legumes—articles which are generally regarded 
as very digestible when the great length of time re¬ 
quired for this purpose goes to show that they are 
not. The resulting gain in weight is generally 
regarded as a very propitious circumstance, when 
it is due, as a rule, to the accumulation of im¬ 
perfectly elaborated material, as the sequel will show. 

In short, the Doctrine of Metabolism and the cor- 



250 


EXISTING THEORIES CRITICALLY EXAMINED 


related theories have led the people to believe that 
their bodies are continually passing into decay and 
that they must partake of adequate quantities of 
those foods which are rich in the elements of which 
the body is composed. For these and other reasons 
yet to be mentioned, it may in truth be said that we 
have as cause, erroneous teaching, and as effects, 

INJURIOUS SUGGESTION, CONTINUOUS APPREHENSION, 
EXCESSIVE ALIMENTATION, INCOMPLETE DIGESTION and 
WIDESPREAD DESTRUCTION. 

Verily, the theoretic suggestion of possible de¬ 
struction ends with actual destruction, the body per¬ 
ishing in consequence of attempts to rebuild tissues 
which are not destroyed as claimed, and by the inges¬ 
tion of materials which are essentially ruinous, as the 
facts set forth in the following chapters of this work 
will show. 

It is an incontestible proposition that the only 
parts which are worn away and replaced by new ma¬ 
terial are those which are exposed to the wear and 
tear of life—the nails, hair, teeth, epidermis and epi¬ 
thelium. The fact that these structures are con¬ 
stantly being worn away and rebuilt; the fact that 
injured tissues are repaired, together with the coming 
and going of those reputed tissue-builders, the white 
corpuscles, have led the world into the mistake of 
supposing that all parts of the body, the osseous 
structures, or bony framework, not excepted, are de¬ 
stroyed and replaced with new material—a mistake 
which finds a measure of extenuation in the fact that 
there are but few if any facts exhibited in nature 



METABOLISM ARRAIGNED 


251 


which are better calculated to mislead those who are 
unacquainted with the basic principles of the vital 
economy than those to which the tissue-building hypo¬ 
thesis appeals for support. It is not at all surpris¬ 
ing, therefore, that the earlier medical philosophers, 
who originated the doctrine in question, attempted 
to make facts which amount to nothing more than an 
incidental and limited circumstance the groundwork 
of a general rule or law of life, or that the later au¬ 
thorities should have failed, as they did, to detect the 
mistake. 

While I have the utmost regard for the origi¬ 
nators and supporters of the doctrine that Steele has 
termed the “glorious paradox of life,” I am con¬ 
strained by a keen sense of duty (born of many years 
of painstaking investigation) to emphasize my con¬ 
tention to the contrary by repeating that this so-called 
glorious paradox is chiefly responsible for the most 
inglorious paradox known to human history—name¬ 
ly, the paradox of the disablement and untimely de¬ 
struction of the body, in consequence of attempts to 
build it up on the lines laid down by the doctrine in 
question. 

Influenced by the supposition that all parts of the 
body are “undergoing slow combustion,” as Tyndall 
puts it, both the medical profession and the general 
public of the period during which this doctrine has 
been regnant have been in a state of perpetual anx¬ 
iety, as already stated, lest the vital structures should 
be consumed faster than they could be rebuilt, and, 
attributing all weakness and loss of weight to “pre- 




252 


EXISTING THEORIES CRITICALLY EXAMINED 


ponderant tissue-metamorphosis,” as the doctrine in 
question suggests, both parties have earnestly en¬ 
deavored to secure “preponderant nutrition” by re¬ 
sorting to the extremely objectionable alternative of 
a practically indescriminate use of what are known 
to science as the “histogenetic,” or “ tissue-building 
foods.” 

And strange to say, neither the originators nor 
the supporters of this doctrine have shown or even 
attempted to show that there is any necessity for, or 
anything gained by, such a round-about-process as 
that of first converting food into tissues and then de¬ 
composing them would be. And no less singular is 
the fact that they have failed to show how the nerves 
can properly convey the nervous influence, or how the 
muscles can duly perform the function of propelling 
the vital machine while they (the structures in ques¬ 
tion) are undergoing “metamorphosis,” a change 
which presupposes a solution of continuity, or breach, 
in the tissues referred to in using this term. More¬ 
over, authorities have failed to show how it is that 
amid changes so complete and so frequently made 
as the histogenetic hypothesis has led the world to 
believe, the various pecularities or distinguishing 
features of the individual are never lost or even ma¬ 
terially modified. Verily, if there was anything more 
than a mere shadow of truth in this theory there 
would be at least an occasional example of a complete 
loss of identity . There is a world of significance in 
the fact that there is no case on record of a loss of 
identity, or of any nitrate of silver “blue man” hav- 




METABOLISM UNVERIFIED 


253 


mg regained his natural color, no matter how long 
the post argentum cyanogenatum period. 

A CULPABLE OVERSIGHT. 

In the long ago, when the existing theories were 
in process of development, Chossat demonstrated by 
means of forty-eight experiments made on rabbits, 
guina-pigs, turtle-doves, pigeons, hens, and crows, 
that starvation involves an average loss of 39.7 per 
cent, of the body weight. 

In consequence of these experiments it was as¬ 
sumed, and has from that day to this been believed in 
all medical circles, domestic and foreign, that this 
loss of weight was the result of “retrograde tissue- 
metamorphosis. ’ ’ In other words, it was set down as 
a demonstrated fact that the body is constantly pass¬ 
ing into decay and that the destruction of tissue in 
case of starvation forms on the average a loss of 39.7 
per cent, of the entire weight of the body. 

Now, the truth or falsity of this decision could 
have been determined by resorting to the very simple 
expedient of ascertaining before and after the starv¬ 
ation experiment, the number of fibres composing 
any given part of the animal. For, if the tissues are 
actually destroyed, as the starvation experiment 
seemed to indicate, there would be a corresponding 
diminution of the number of fibres, to say nothing of 
presupposable breaches of continuity in the tissues. 

It goes without saying that in the development of 
so important a doctrine as this is supposed to be, 
every possible precaution should have been observed, 



254 


EXISTING THEORIES CRITICALLY EXAMINED 


and yet there is no evidence, I believe, of an attempt 
having been made to verify the proposition by means 
of the obviously appropriate experiments above sug¬ 
gested, or any other method. 

Verily, if it were true, that all parts of the body 
are constantlv undergoing “ retrograde tissue-meta¬ 
morphosis,’’ or that any form of disease is due to 
“preponderant disintegration,” the labors of the dis¬ 
secting-room would be but little if any more than 
farcial. 

I do not hesitate to affirm that in all the centuries 
of dissecting-room investigation not so much as a 
single fact has been elicited which can justly be re¬ 
garded as a sufficient basis for the existing faith in 
the doctrine of metabolism. For, with the exception 
of such examples of tissue-destruction as were evi¬ 
dently due to violence or extreme morbid action, 
every tissue of every part of every cadaver that has 
ever been dissected was in its proper place, ready to 
tell the story of Nature’s marvelous uniformity in 
the work of construction, and incidentally to brand 
the tissue-destruction hypothesis, or doctrine of 
metabolism, as a falsehood of the most flagrant and 
ruinous character. 

Later on it will be made perfectly evident that this 
much vaunted hypothesis has no other basis than the 
interpretation which was in the long ago placed upon 
the changes exhibited by the leucocyte and those 
vhich occur in those parts which are exposed to 
abrasion. 



THE RESPIRATORY-FOOD THEORY 


255 


The Doctrine of Metabolism, or tissue-destruction 
and reconstruction hypothesis, owes its origin, it 
seems, to the misinterpretation of the facts to which it 
appeals for support—the fact that the growth of the 
body depends upon food; the fact that food contrib¬ 
utes in some way to the healing of wounds; the fact 
that the hair, nails, teeth, epidermis and epithelium 
are worn away and replaced by new material; the fact 
that the so-called white blood corpuscles are con¬ 
stantly appearing and disappearing; the fact, wit¬ 
nessed by all observers, that in disappearing these 
corpuscles are actually dissolved or broken-down. 

In conclusion, I would respectfully, earnestly and 
fearlessly affirm; that, aside from the changes pro¬ 
duced by abrasion, or violence, or morbid action, as 
above indicated, there is no destruction, oxidation or 
disintegration of tissue—that the working parts of 
the vital machine endure from the beginning to the 
end of life, acting and reacting as the years come and 
go and with but little more loss of substance, prac¬ 
tically speaking, than that which is sustained by a 
well managed steam engine. 

THE RESPIRATORY-FOOD THEORY. ' 

The Respiratory-Food Hypothesis was advanced 
in the early part of the nineteenth century by the most 
eminent chemist of that day and age, Prof. Justus 
von Liebig, of Munich. This hypothesis, the oldest, 
I believe, of those theories that go to make up the 
fundamental postulates of our branch of science, in¬ 
volves, as already stated, the eminently plausible con- 



256 


EXISTING THEORIES CRITICALLY EXAMINED 


tention that the hydrocarbons, or fats and oils com¬ 
monly used for food, are utilized by the living organ¬ 
ism in the maintenance of its temperature. In other 
words, the Respiratory-Food Theory involves the 
claim that the color animalis, or animal heat, is pro¬ 
duced in consequence of the oxidation of the fats and 
oils commonly used in culinary operations and as 
articles of diet. 

From the days of its illustrious originator on 
down to the present time this doctrine has passed un¬ 
challenged, and yet there are many reasons for saying 
it is far, very far, from being correct. Reference is 
made in particular to the well-known fact that oleag¬ 
inous substances do not enter the circulation by 
passing directly through the intestinal walls along 
with peptone, but are first emulsified and then taken 
up by organs specially adapted to the purpose (the 
lacteals) and are borne by the shortest possible route 
to the lungs, where they are oxidized and at the ex¬ 
pense of oxygen needed for other purposes. Of 
course there is some heat produced, but in a locality 
where it is not especially needed, and from which it 
would have to be distributed to points where it is 
needed—the surface and extremities—by the blood, 
the flow of which is too slow to justify the belief that 
the All-Wise Creator would devise such a scheme. 

While the reasons now stated are within them¬ 
selves sufficient to greatly discredit this doctrine, it is 
safe to say that they are not to be compared with those 
which will be developed in answer to duly exacting 
investigations. 



THE RESPIRATORY-FOOD THEORY 


257 


Lest some one should suppose that I am alone in 
the recognition of the fact that the fats and oils are 
cremated, as it were, in the lungs, I invite attention 
to the following quotation from one of our highest 
authorities, and which is in perfect keeping with the 
teachings of all others of the present time. 

“The fatty matters also undergo a transformation 
while passing through the lungs by which their dis¬ 
tinctive characters are destroyed, and they are no 
longer visible as oleaginous particles. This altera¬ 
tion is so complete, during the early part of digestion, 
or when the proportion of fat in the food is small, that 
all the oleaginous matter disappears in the lungs, and 
none is to be detected in the general circulation.’’—* 
From Dalton’s “Human Physiology,” p. 202, Henry 
C. Lea’s Son & Co., Philadelphia, Pa., Publishers. 

While it is true that physicians and physiologists 
in general are well aware of the fact mentioned in this 
quotation, it seems that they have not recognized the 
real significance of the outcome—namely, (1), that 
the emulsified material is oxidized at the expense of 
oxygen needed for another purpose—the vivification 
of the red blood corpuscles; (2), that the amount of 
heat produced is very small in comparison to the act¬ 
ual needs of the body; (3), that the heat is produced 
at a point where there is no particular need of it, to 
say nothing of the mischievous possibilities of in¬ 
ternal heat-production, and (4), that it is practically 
impossible for the heat to be conveyed from the pul¬ 
monary furnaces to peripheral regions, where it is 
needed. In short, it is a practically self-evident prop¬ 
osition that the heat produced in consequence of fat 



258 


EXISTING THEORIES CRITICALLY EXAMINED 


eating is not normal, but abnormal; not animal heat, 
but fever heat; not beneficial, but prejudicial, being 
either injurious or ruinous, according to existing 
circumstances. 

It is a very significant fact that man is the only 
member of the animal creation that has the temerity 
to habitually devour fatty matter. All other animals, 
the carnivori not excepted, either refuse it or eat it 
under compulsory circumstances. Neither insects 
nor microbes ever attempt to consume perfectly pure 
fat of any kind—a proposition the truth of which is 
seen by reference to the permanency of the various 
well-rendered fats and oils. 

The Eskimos live in a region where the atmos¬ 
phere is not only free from extraneous gases, but 
highly charged with oxygen, and yet it was shown not 
long since in a magazine article, written by a man 
who had traveled much among this people, that they 
are very generally afflicted with loathsome disorders 
-—troubles which may well be' laid to the charge of 
their “whale blubber” diet. The testimony of the 
magazine writer has every appearance of being un¬ 
biased, authentic and trustworthy, and since the rein¬ 
deer lives in the same frigid region and maintains the 
requisite temperature on fatless food and has little 
or no fat in its tissues, it must be admitted that the 
time-worn custom of trying to support the doctrine 
in question by referring to the fat-eating of the Eski¬ 
mos is as untenable as it is far-fetched. This theory 
is discredited by the further fact that the evidences 



259 


THE NITROGENOUS-FOOD THEORY 


of a lack of animal heat have kept pace with the in¬ 
crease of the fat-eating custom. 

THE NITROGENOUS-FOOD THEORY. 

The Nitrogenous-Food Theory is another member 
of that group of illy-defined doctrines which are gen¬ 
erally regarded as the laws of life. It teaches, or at 
least, seems to teach, that nitrogen is the prime es¬ 
sential, or most important element of food. This 
theory is complementary to the Doctrine of Metab¬ 
olism, in that it affirms, in substance, that those 
articles which are “rich in nitrogen” are needed for 
“histogenetic,” or tissue-building purposes. 

It seems, at least, to be true that the Nitrogenous- 
Food Theory and the Doctrine of Metabolism owe 
their origin to the misinterpretation of three well- 
known facts: First, the fact that the tissues of the 
living organism and the so-called nitrogenous foods 
are identical in their composition, containing the 
same elements and in practically the same propor¬ 
tions; second, the fact that those foods which are 
classed as nitrogenous—meats, eggs, cereals, legumes, 
and the like—are known to be more nutritious than 
the less concentrated food substances; third, the fact 
that the increased use of these foods is attended with 
a corresponding increase of the percentage of nitro¬ 
gen-salts (urea and uric acid) in the excreta. 

By reference to the chapter on the “Storage of 
Energy in Food” and that on Myo-Mechanics and 
Myo-Dynamics, the reader will hardly fail to perceive 




260 


EXISTING THEORIES CRITICALLY EXAMINED 


and admit that the first and second of the above 
named positions are untenable—that the foods in 
question owe their superiority not to the nitrogen that 
enters into their composition, but to a radically differ¬ 
ent and obviously more capable as well as more 
abundant constituent—namely, carbon. 

The untrustworthiness of the testimony afforded 
by the presence of nitrogen salts in the excreta may be 
seen by reference to the analogy that subsists between 
the food we eat and the fuel we burn, and between 
the waste products of the body and the ashes that re¬ 
main in the stove after the fuel has been consumed, it 
being an undeniable fact that all of the strictly nor¬ 
mal waste matters, the nitrogen salts not excepted, 
are the same in character and in the manner of their 
production as the ashes that result from the com¬ 
bustion of fuel. 

There is nothing whatever in the ashes that points 
to the well-known fact that carbon and hydrogen were 
the essential, or heat-and-light-producing elements of 
the fuel, for these constituents thereof had previously 
united with the oxygen of the air, forming carbon 
dioxide and hydrogen oxide—gaseous products which 
escape up the pipe as fast as they are formed, leaving 
not the slightest trace of the material (carbon and 
hydrogen) that gave rise to the energy-phenomena— 
namely, heat and light. 

Now, the consumption of food is attended with 
similar results, which are, on the one hand, the de¬ 
velopment of animal heat, the nervous influence and 
muscular energy—things powerful but eminently 



THE NITROGENOUS-FOOD THEORY 


261 


evanescent,— and on the other, the production of 
nitrogen salts and other waste matters—things ma¬ 
terial, visible and tangible, but utterly destitute of 
evidence concerning the element that gave rise to the 
vital energies. A thousand analyses might be made 
of the ashes that are left in a stove without securing 
a particle of information concerning the essential, or 
heat-and-light-producing, constituents of the fuel. 
And the same would be true of any examination that 
might be made of the various materials which are 
left in the vital retort after the food has been con¬ 
sumed. All analyses that could be made, and all the 
reagents that could by any possibility be applied, 
would utterly fail to show what it was that gave life, 
energy and activity to the body, the elements upon 
which these manifestations really depend having en¬ 
tered into combination with oxygen and escaped to 
the outer world, as the discoveries set forth in this 
work certainly show. 

Since nitrogen is not a combustible element, and 
since it abounds to the greatest extent in the highly 
concentrated and therefore least perishable foods, 
such as meats, eggs, cereals, and legumes, it would be 
far more reasonable to suppose that it simply serves 
in common w T ith the earthy matters to impart sta¬ 
bility to organized material; that is, to render it less 
perishable than it otherwise would be. 

The nitrogen hypothesis is not only discredited by 
the fact that nitrogen is practically if not entirely 
destitute of the attributes upon which energy-phe¬ 
nomena are generally known to depend, but com- 



262 


EXISTING THEORIES CRITICALLY EXAMINED 


pletely annihilated, it would seem, by the further and 
very significant circumstance that the so-called nitro¬ 
genous foods contain only about 16% of nitrogen, 
while there is in them about 54% of another element 
which is famous the world over, as a source of energy 
—namely, carbon. 

In view of the essential plainness, or perceptibil¬ 
ity of these two facts, it must be set down as a most 
surprising circumstance that men of science have per¬ 
sisted for so long a time in the matter of ignoring, or 
not discerning, the claims of that constituent of food 
which is evidently capable of producing energy- 
phenomena—namely, carbon, and ascribing the vir¬ 
tues of food to that element which is so easily seen t<s 
be neither essentially capable nor sufficiently abun¬ 
dant—namely, nitrogen. 

Attention is now earnestly invited to that which 
is believed to be an incontestible analysis of the claims 
of a proposition advanced in the early part of the 
nineteenth century, by men of the highest rank and 
most unquestionable integrity—to a generalization 
which is so eminently plausible that it has captivated 
and held in the chains of unwavering confidence the 
brightest minds, professional and non-professional 
that are known to modern times, while it is perfectly 
and undeniably open to the objection of being at once 
the greatest stumbling-block that medicine has ever 
encountered and the crux, par excellence, of nine¬ 
teenth-century medicine. The doctrine in question 
starts out with the most incontestible proposition that 
can be named, and then, without apparent change of 



THE CELL-THEORY 


direction it plunges into the very vortex of error and 
confusion, defeating the devotees of the healing art 
and carrying pain and wreckage to countless thou¬ 
sands of people every year. Reference is made to 
that most fascinating hypothesis which is termed 

THE CELL-THEORY. 

In consequence of the high regard I have for the 
originators and supporters of this doctrine, I have 
been slow, very slow, to assail it. Instead of denounc¬ 
ing it years ago in answer to the conviction brought 
out by the discoveries set forth in the preceding chap¬ 
ters, I proceeded to make assurance doubly sure by 
interrogating to the best of my ability, both the con¬ 
clusions I had formed and the doctrine itself, com¬ 
prehending several years of careful observation and 
a great deal of experimentation. In other words, I 
have spared neither time nor expense in the effort 
to arrive at the truth. 

The Cell-Theory involves, as stated in the intro¬ 
duction, what may be termed a major and a minor 
premise. The major premise affirms, and quite truly, 
that all life, both animal and vegetable, begins with 
a cell and that every living thing, whether vegetable 
or animal, is essentially an aggregation of cells. The 
minor premise declares that the leucocyte, more 
commonly called the white blood corpuscle, is a “ liv¬ 
ing organism’’ and the “primordial animal cell.” 
This subdivision of the cell-theory, as amended by 
Metchnikoff, embraces two propositions: First, 
that the white blood corpuscle undergoes a change, 



264 


EXISTING THEORIES CRITICALLY EXAMINED 


called “differentiation,” thus adapting itself to the 
work of reproducing “worn-out tissues,” as authori¬ 
ties have long contended, and second, that it is a 
phagocyte, performing the further service of devour¬ 
ing and destroying the germs of disease. For this 
reason the “white blood cell,” or leucocyte, is called 
the “vigilant policeman of the vital domain.” 

The Cell-Theory presents in support of its major 
premise the undeniably fundamental structural prin¬ 
ciple that every living object, whether animal or 
vegetable, is in its essence a cellular structure. It 
presents in support of its minor premise an equally 
discernible and extremely alluring fact —namely, the 
motility of the white blood corpuscle. This unde¬ 
niable circumstance is the basis of the long existent 
and practically universal belief that the “white blood 
corpuscle,” is a living organism. 

The correctness of this decision has seemed to be 
self-evident, because at a certain period of its history 
the leucocyte appears as a motus corpusculum, or 
moving body. “Seeing is believing,” as long ago ex¬ 
pressed in the term, vide et crede, and; hence, to see 
the leucocyte send forth and then withdraw its ten¬ 
tacles, or “pseudopodia,” after the manner of the 
projection and retraction of the horns (so-called) of 
the snail, and with the effect of locomotion at that, is 
but to be convinced that it is as certainly a thing of 
life as is the snail; in other words, to watch the 
“white blood corpuscle” in the performance of its 
multifarious evolutions, from “amoeboid progres¬ 
sion” on up to “vital duplication,” and in the absence 



THE CELL-THEORY 


265 


of any information to the contrary, at that, is hut to 
incur the conviction that it is beyond all perad- 
venture a living organism and the very beginning of 
animal life, as the biologists and physiologists of the 
entire civilized world have long and enthusiastically 
contended. 

It goes without saying that all the biologic, phys¬ 
iologic and much of the dietetic and pathologic teach¬ 
ing of this day and age is founded upon the assump¬ 
tions, that the “white blood corpuscle” is a “living 
cell”; that it is “differentiated” into the tissues of 
the body; that it is a “phagocyte” or germ-devourer 
and that the material in which it is found and from 
which it is formed—variously termed, bioplasm, cyto¬ 
plasm, protoplasm, sarcode, blastema and germinal 
matter—is the 4 ‘physical basis of life.” Every Sci¬ 
entist of distinction who has flourished in the last 
fifty years, from the celebrated Prof. Rudolph Vir¬ 
chow to those of the present day, has been an enthu¬ 
siastic advocate of the leucocytic sub-division of the 
cell-theory; in a word, this part of the cell-thory is 
generally regarded as a firmly established scientific 
proposition. 

This particular subdivision of the cell-theory 
affords an extraordinary exemplification of the cor- 
restness of the scientific aphorism that: Facts with¬ 
out principles to explain them are essentially mis¬ 
leading. For it is not only a matter of history that 
it began in strife, but an undeniable fact that it has 
ended in confusion of the most unfortunate order, 
as I shall now proceed to show. 



266 


EXISTING THEORIES CRITICALLY EXAMINED 


Some fifty-odd years ago the great warriors in the 
field of medical polemics were divided, it will be re¬ 
membered, into two antagonistic camps on account of 
the similarity that evidently exists between “ color¬ 
less corpuscles/ ’ as the leucocytes were then called, 
and pus corpuscles; the one party stoutly averring 
that these hypothetical “bones of contention’’ were 
identical, while the other as strenuously insisted that 
they were different. After a long period of disputa¬ 
tion the matter was settled, it will also be remem¬ 
bered, by the dictum of the rising medical genius of 
the period, Professor Rudolph Virchow, and wrongly 
at that, as we shall presently see. That this dispute 
should have arisen at that or at any subsequent period 
is a thing which will hardly be deemed surprising by 
any person who is at all familiar with the object or 
objects of dispute; for the resemblance that the one 
bears to the other is so very close that a correct 
decision depends upon a knowledge of the source 
from which they sprung—if from the blood, they are 
white blood corpuscles; if from an abscess or other 
abnormal source, they are pus corpuscles. This is the 
criterion set by the foster father of the cell-theory, 
Prof. Rudolph Virchow. In referring to the con¬ 
troversy that arose in his day regarding the constitu¬ 
ents of that part of coagulated blood which is called 
the “buffy coat” (crusta granulosa), this author set 
forth the principal details of the dispute, and the 
rules for the settlement of such questions as follows: 

“ Under all circumstances this layer resembles 
pus in appearance, and since, as we have already seen, 



THE CELL-THEORY 


26 ? 


the colourless blood-cells individually are constituted 
like pus-corpuscles, you see that we are liable not 
only in the case of a healthy person to take colourless 
blood-cells for pus-corpuscles, but still more so in 
pathological conditions when the blood or other parts 
are full of these elements. You can imagine how apt 
the question is to present itself, which has already 
been seriously raised by Addison and Zimmermann, 
whether pus-corpuscles are not merely extravasated 
colourless blood-cells, or vice versa, whether the 
colourless blood-cells found within the vessels are not 
pus-corpuscles which have been admitted into them 
from the exterior. We are here called upon for the 
first time to make the practical application of the 
principles which I laid down with regard to the spe¬ 
cific nature and heterology of elements (p. 92). A 
pus-corpuscle can be distinguished from a colourless 
blood-cell by nothing else than its mode of origin. If 
you do not know whence it has come, you cannot say 
what it is; you may conceive the greatest doubt as to 
whether you are to regard a body of the kind as a 
pus or a colourless blood-corpuscle. In every case 
of the sort the points to be considered are, where the 
body belongs to, and where its home is. If this prove 
to be external to the blood, you may safely conclude 
that it is pus; but if this is not the case, you have to 
do with blood-cells.”—From Cellular Pathology, pp. 
187 & 188.—Robert M. He Witt, Publisher, New 
York. 

That the reader may see that the item referred to 
in the foregoing quotation as being on page 92 is also 
of the unsatisfactory order. I will quote it precisely 
as it occurs in Prof. Virchow’s work—that is, with 
italics included. Here it is: 

“But if we ultimately arrive at such a simple view 



268 


EXISTING THEORIES CRITICALLY EXAMINED 


of the matter, the question of course arises, what 
becomes of the doctrine of the heterology of morbid 
products, to the upholding of which we have long been 
accustomed and to which the most simple reflection 
almost inevitably conducts us. Hereunto I can re¬ 
turn no other answer than that there is no other kind 
of heterology in morbid structures than the abnormal 
manner in which they arise, and that this abnormity 
consists either in the production of a structure at a 
point where it has no business, or at a time when it 
ought not to be produced, or at an extent which is at 
variance with the typical formation of the body. So 
then, to speak with greater precision, there is either 
a Heterotopia, an aberratio loci, or an aberratio tem- 
poris, a Heterochronia, or lastly, a mere variation in 
quantity, Heterometria. But we must be very care¬ 
ful not to connect this kind of heterology in the more 
extended sense of the word with the notion of 
malignity. Heterology is a term that, in its histologi¬ 
cal meaning may be applied to a large proportion of 
pathological new formations, which, as far as the 
prognosis is concerned, may unquestionably be called 
benignant; it is not rare for a new formation to occur 
at a point where it is certainly entirely misplaced, but 
at the same time does not occasion any considerable 
mischief. ,, 

Now it is perfectly evident that this is, to say the 
least, a very lame criterion for the settlement of such 
grave questions as those to which the # author thereof 
refers and that the perpetuity of the doctrine in 
whose interest it has been invoked hangs upon an ex¬ 
ceedingly slender thread. 

I trust I may be excused for undertaking to 
prove, as I must in answer to the dictates of a con- 



THE CELL THEORY 


269 


science made alive and insistent by the exigencies of 
the existing situation and a well-defined conception 
of the reasons therefor, that every redoubt that de¬ 
fends the leucocytic subdivision of the cell-theory can 
be battered down and completely pulverized, so to 
speak, by the artillery of legitimate reasoning and 
thoroughgoing investigation—that it is not only un¬ 
true, but the very reverse of the truth; that it has 
not only failed to elucidate the phenomena that it 
professes to explain, but has been productive of more 
confusion, disappointment and disaster than all other 
medical misconceptions combined; that it is chiefly 
responsible for the world’s undoing as we see it re¬ 
flected in the vital and mortuary statistics of the 
period during which it has been regnant, and that if 
it were correct it would constitute a complete reversal 
of the established order of scientific progression, 
since, instead of leading from the complex to the 
simple—from a vast world of diversified phenomena 
to the underlying cause thereof, as all real discoveries 
in science have done, and notably those made by New¬ 
ton and the fathers of modern chemistry—it leads 
from the comparatively simple to the amazingly com¬ 
plex. Reference is made to the fact that the hypo¬ 
thesis in question has led the world to regard those 
diversely shaped particles of albuminoid material 
which are variously termed leucocytes, white blood 
corpuscles, embryonal cells, white cells, giant cells, 
epithelial cells, nucleated cells, non-nucleated cells, 
multi-nucleated cells, and pus corpuscles, as so many 
distinct entities, when they are in reality essentially 



270 


EXISTING THEORIES CRITICALLY EXAMINED 


the same, and to regard certain ones as good and the 
rest as bad, when the truth is they are, one and all, 
open to the charge, as the subject matter of the fol¬ 
lowing chapter will show, of being nothing more nor 
less than “foreign bodies” and the disturbing ele¬ 
ments par excellence of the vital economy . In the 
progress of this work it will be made perfectly evident 
that these so-called cells are not cells; that they are 
nothing more nor less than differing forms of one and 
the same thing and that they are composed of the 
same material that gives rise to the vilest of all in- 
cumberers of the living organism, miliary tubercles 
and the so-called cells of the most malignant of all 
diseases—carcinoma. 

EXTENUATING CIRCUMSTANCES. 

Since every living organism is in its essence an 
aggregation of cells and since the white corpuscle not 
only resembles to some extent a real cell, but seems 
to be endowed with life, it cannot be deemed a very 
surprising circumstance that those who were on the 
hunt for an explanation of nutrition and locomotion 
should be led, as above intimated, to make a distinc¬ 
tion where no difference, save that of form or condi¬ 
tion, exists, and to regard the leucocyte as a bit of 
“living protoplasm,” as the “primordial animal 
cell,” as a “living tissue,” as a “tissue builder,” as a 
“phagocyte,” or “germ-eater,” and, hence, as “the 
vigilant policeman of the vital domain,” when it is in 
reality a mortuus corpusculum, or dead corpuscle 
and, per consequence, a “foreign body” of dangerous 
import. 



THE CELL-THEORY 


27 ] 


It is generally supposed, as stated in a preceding 
paragraph, that the leucocytic subdivision of the cell- 
theory constitutes the greatest of all elements of 
medical advancement, and yet it is an incontestible 
proposition, as the sequel will show, that it involves, 
to say the least, nothing more than a mere versatio 
in loco —movement without progress. 

Since the existing situation certainly demands it, 
I feel that I must frankly declare, as I now do, that 
the cell-theory as now constituted is open to the 
charge of having blocked the wheels of medical pro¬ 
gression as nothing else has ever done—a proposition 
which will hardly be seriously controverted. For a 
serious investigation will make it appear that the 
supposition that the “white blood corpuscle” is a 
living organism and an essential element of the blood, 
is condemned by many perfectly discernible facts, 
which have escaped detection on account of the life¬ 
like activities that it displays at a certain stage of 
its existence. It will also be seen that every move¬ 
ment of this so-called cell is attributable to agencies 
entirely at variance with those on which vital phe¬ 
nomena actually depend. At any rate I shall attempt 
to show that such is the case. 

While there is and can be no question as to the 
correctness of the generally accepted opinion, that the 
red Mood corpuscle is a true and indispensable ele¬ 
ment of the blood, the question is now raised as to 
the truth of the long current opinion regarding the 
nature of the leucocyte, or white corpuscle. In sub¬ 
sequent chapters of this work it will be made per- 



272 


EXISTING THEORIES CRITICALLY EXAMINED 


fectly evident that the leucocyte or so-called white 
blood corpuscle is not the primordial animal cell, but 
a surpassingly hurtful foreign-body—that it is one 
form of the material that paves the way for diseases 
in general. The evidences to this effect are almost 
innumerable, as the sequel will show, but the real 
meaning thereof has for some reason eluded detec¬ 
tion. Reference is made in particular to several well- 
known facts, which are within themselves sufficient, 
it would seem, to put a final quietus upon the assump¬ 
tion that the leucocyte is a normal element of the 
blood, and here they are: 

First, that in times of good health there is only 
one white corpuscle to about one thousand of the red, 
which certainly shows that they are unimportant, to 
say the least; second, that in times of ill health or 
disease the number of the white corpuscles is unusual¬ 
ly large at the start; third, that, as a rule, the number 
increases in exact ratio, or nearly so, to the increase 
of the gravity of the morbid process; fourth, that in 
the severest cases with which we have to deal, these 
so-called tissue-builders and vigilant policemen are 
sufficiently preponderant to constitute a complete re¬ 
versal of the percentages that obtain in health; fifth, 
that the greater the number of these so-called ele¬ 
ments that the sick man carries in his circulation, the 
less probable is his recovery. 

SEARCHING QUESTIONS. 

Let us, dear reader, lay aside all preconceived no¬ 
tions, all pride of opinion and all authoritative re- 



THE CELL-THEORY 


273 


straints and look the facts of experience and observa¬ 
tion squarely in the face; and let us begin the much 
needed inquiry by asking ourselves a few pertinent 
questions, such as the following: 

1. If it be true, as authorities have contended, 
that nutrition consists in the rebuilding of wornout 
tissues and that the leucocytes are the requisite tissue- 
builders, how can such a limited amount of tissue¬ 
building material as that carried by the well man pro¬ 
duce such voluminous results as the facts of his case 
naturally imply—namely, the various powers and 
possibilities of abounding health? 

2. If it be true that the white corpuscles are both 
phagocytes (germ-eaters) and tissue-builders, as we 
have been led to suppose, why do they not succeed 
more frequently and promptly than they do in per¬ 
forming their allotted tasks—the devouring of the 
germs and the rebuilding of the tissues ? 

3. If the so-called white blood corpuscles are what 
we thus far have supposed them to be, would they not 
be more numerous in health, and less numerous in 
disease ? 

4. What meaneth the well recognized fact that 
“mechanical obstruction’’ of the blood vessels is the 
essential difficulty in congestion, if not that the ever¬ 
present leucocyte is the mechanical obstruent and 
hence the active cause of this, the most fundamental 
of all lesions? 

5. Is it not far more reasonable to suppose that 
the leucocytes with which inflamed areas are crowded 



274 


EXISTING THEORIES CRITICALLY EXAMINED 


are responsible for this state of things, than to infer, 
as we thus far have done, that they came hither for 
the purpose of repairing the damages? 

6. Is it not far more reasonable to suppose that 
the leucocytes that we see in the margins of wounds 
are being pushed out of the circulation by the way 
of the breach, than to infer that they assembled there 
for the purpose of repairing it, as we always have 
done? 

7. When we see the leucocyte slip through the 
walls of the blood vessels after the manner of the 
passage of a bit of cloth through a knot hole, as we 
often do, why shall we not conclude that it is not a 
friend on benevolence bent, as we have supposed, 
but a dangerous intruder upon the sanctity of the 
circulating system, and has for this reason been ex¬ 
pelled therefrom? And since the leucocyte is com¬ 
posed of the same kind of material that enters into 
the composition of the so-called cells that are found 
in the various morbid growths, why may we not con¬ 
clude that those leucocytes which have been expelled, 
as above suggested, from the vascular system will as¬ 
semble in some practically defenceless region and be 
blended into larger cells and these in turn into a 
tumor of some kind—a cancerous growth, for exam¬ 
ple, as the facts really seem to indicate ? 

8. Since it is well known that the disease germ is 
the tertium quid, or third agent, on which the disinte¬ 
gration of the unstable forms of organic matter de¬ 
pends, and since the leucocytes are practically non¬ 
existent in health while they are very numerous in 



THE CELL-THEORY 


275 


disease, why may we not conclude that they constitute 
a part of the pabulum, or soil, on which the propaga¬ 
tion of disease-germs depend, and that in what seems 
to be a phagocytic operation the leucocyte is not the 
destroyer, but the thing destroyed? 

9. Is it not entirely reasonable to suppose that 
the motility of the white blood corpuscle is due to the 
forces, not of life, but of death; to the processes not 
of vital duplication, but of chemical dissolution—that 
is, to the combined effects of chemotaxis, disintegra¬ 
tion and gaseous expansion, as before suggested ? 

10. Has it not come to be perfectly evident that 
the white blood corpuscle, is not a blood corpuscle, but 
a foreign body; not a tissue-builder, but a tissue de¬ 
stroyer; not a vigilant policeman, but a dangerous 
highwayman, so to speak? 

11. If it be true that the current teaching is open 
to these criticisms—and it certainly is—what does 
more than sixty years of a worse than fruitless study 
of the leucocyte mean if not that Nature, the great¬ 
est of all illusionists, has been deceiving the very 
elect of the Scientific World by performing in their 
presence the eminently deceptive feat of causing a 
particle of decaying organic matter to simulate the 
phenomena of life with marvelous accuracy, as I have 
already suggested ? 

12. In short, what does disease mean, if not that 
the living organism is thus engaged in a life or death 
struggle which has for its principal object the dis- 
lodgment, annihilation, or expulsion of that which is 



276 


EXISTING THEORIES CRITICALLY EXAMINED 


vastly more dreadful in its effects than the blighting 
blossoms and death-dealing effluvium of the upas- 
tree—namely, the so-called white blood corpuscle ? 

DISCREPANCIES AND INCONGRUITIES. 

Having become perfectly satisfied that the leu¬ 
cocytic hypothesis is a misconception of the most un¬ 
fortunate order and the greatest of all obstacles to 
medical progress, I shall now pave the way for the 
more substantial evidences to be submitted in the 
following chapters, by calling attention to a few out 
of the many damaging discrepancies and incongrui¬ 
ties that exist in the literature of the subject. 

That there is a very wide difference between the 
changes that take place in real animal cells—the ova 
of birds and animals—and those that occur in the 
so-called white blood corpuscle is a proposition the 
truth of which will be made perfectly apparent by a 
careful and unbiased examination of the facts and 
illustrations presented by authorities. For it will be 
an easy matter to see that the changes described as 
taking place in the ova are perfectly regular, while 
those that are set forth as occurring in the so-called 
white blood corpuscle are absolutely irregular. A 
multitude of examples might be given, but the follow¬ 
ing must suffice for the present: 

“The spermatozoon produces two kinds of effects 
upon the egg. It causes the egg to develop and it 
transmits the paternal qualities to the offspring. We 
are here concerned only with the developmental ef¬ 
fects of the spermatozoon. * * * After the en- 



THE CELL-THEORY 


277 


trance of the spermatozoon the egg has one nucleus 
which during segmentation is successively divided 
into two, four, eight, sixteen, etc., nuclei. Boveri has 
shown that each new nucleus has the same size as the 
first nucleus after fertilization. It is therefore obvi¬ 
ous that one, and, to all appearances, the foremost 
chemical effect of the spermatozoon upon the egg is 
an enormous synthesis of nuclear matter, and to this 
we must give our attention.’’—Prof. Jaques Loeb, in 
Science, Oct. 4, 1907. 

It is well-known that the proliferation of bacteria 
progresses in a similar manner, as stated in the fol¬ 
lowing quotation: 

“ Assuming that all conditions are favorable and 
allowing for a division every half hour, 

At the beginning there is one bacillus. 

At the end of the first half hour there will be two 
bacilli. 

At the end of the second half hour there will be 
four bacilli. 

At the end of the third half hour there will be 
eight bacilli. 

At the end of the fourth half hour there will be 
sixteen bacilli. 

At the end of the fifth hour there will be thirty- 
two bacilli. 

At the end of the sixth half hour there will be 
sixty-four bacilli. 

At the end of the seventh half hour there will be 
one hundred and twenty-eight bacilli.” 

Thus it is that the increase goes on, ad infinitum, 
in exact geometrical ratio—a thing never observed in 
either the amoeba or the white blood corpuscle. 



278 


EXISTING THEORIES CRITICALLY EXAMINED 


CELL-DIVISION FALLACY. 

In the further exemplification of the fact that the 
real ‘ 1 vital duplication” exhibited by a real cell of a 
real animal does not find its counterpart in those 



Fig. 87. (Huxley.) 

Author’s description of Fig. 87.—“Diagram of the Ovum, a, Granular pro¬ 
toplasm; b, nucleus called ‘germinal vesicle’; c f nucleolus, called ‘germinal 
spot'.”—Huxley’s Elementary Physiology. Page 306 





* c? 

Fig. 88. (Huxley.) 


Author’s description of Fig. 88.—“The successive division of the Mammalian 
Ovum into Blastomeres. Somewhat diagrammatic, a, division into two- b 
Into four; c, into eight, and d, into several blastomeres. The clear rina 
e each case is the zona pellucida, or membrane investing ovum.” Hux^ 
e /« Elementary Physiology. Page 306.—By permission of the publishers 
Macmillan and Company, London and New York. pupnsners, 


changes that take place in the amoeba and the leu¬ 
cocyte, or so-called “primordial animal cell,” atten- 




THE CELL-THEORY 


27S 


tion is respectfully and earnestly invited to the fol¬ 
lowing two sets of illustrations and the descriptions 
appended thereto by the authors thereof. The first 
set is copied from Professor Huxley’s “Elementary 
Lessons in Physiology” and represents the real 
animal-cell and the genuine, or purposive, cell-divis- 



Fig. 1C6. (Dunham.) 


"Leucocytes” from normal human blood. (Bohn and Davidoff.) a, red 
blood-corpuscle, introduced for comparison; b, small mononuclear leucocyte 
(lymphocyte ; c, large mononuclear leucocyte; g, polynuclear leucocyte. These 
differ in the character of the granules they contain (not represented In the 
figure). In normal blood those granules are neutrophilic in the vast majority 
of the polynucleated leucocytes. Occasionally they are acidophilic, "esino- 
phile leucocytes”; sometimes basophilic, "mast-cells” or "plasma-cells”; d, 
e, f, intermediate and probably transitional forms between the large mononu¬ 
clear leucocytes, c, and the polynucleated leucocytes, or leucocytes with poly¬ 
morphic nuclei, g.”—Dunham’s Histology. Page 125. By permission of the 
publishers, Lea Brothers and Co., New York and Philadelphia. 


ion, as we see it in the developing ova of birds and 
animals. The second set is taken from Professor 
Dunham’s “Normal Histology,” and was selected in 
the spirit of absolute fairness—that is, because the 
changes thus expressed involve the nearest approach 
to the regularity exhibited in genuine cell-division I 
have been able to find in our literature. 



280 


EXISTING THEORIES CRITICALLY EXAMINED 


Attention is now invited to two more sets of en¬ 
gravings and the descriptions published in connection 
therewith, all of which were copied from a work 
written by one of our most reputable authorities, 
Professor H. Newell Martin, of Johns Hopkins 
University. 

Set number one illustrates and describes, as the 
reader will readily perceive, those changes in a 
“white blood corpuscle” which are supposed to con¬ 
stitute the equivalent of the cell-division depicted and 
described in set number two. 

The reader is earnestly requested to note the ex¬ 
treme irregularity of the changes depicted in the first 



Fig. 6. 


“A white blood corpuscle dividing, as observed at successive intervals 
of a few seconds with the microscope.”—From Martin’s work, "The Human 
Body,” page 18. By permission of the publishers, Henry Holt & Co., New 
York. 

set of drawings and then ask himself in all serious¬ 
ness : Is it at all reasonable to suppose that the cells of 
the body of any man or animal were multiplied in any 
such way as this ? Is it not far more reasonable to 
infer that such changes are purely referable to ad¬ 
vancing disintegration? After thus interrogating 
himself he will gain much useful information by ex¬ 
amining the next set of figures and descriptions, 
noting with care the absolute irregularity of the first 
and the marvelous symmetry, regularity and geomet¬ 
rical precision of the other. The gain accruing from 



THE CELL-THEORY 


283 


such an examination will be the perception of the fact 
that the white blood corpuscle is not a living cell but 
a foreign body, and that there is some reason for the 
suspicion that the cell-theory as now constituted is 
chiefly responsible for the world’s undoing as we see 
it reflected in the mortuary statistics of the period 
during which it has been regnant. As a result of such 
examination he will also be able to propound and cor- 



d e f 



Fig. 8. 


"A, an ovum; b to e, successive stages in its segmentation until the morula, 
f, is produced.”—From Martin’s work, “The Human Body,” page 26. By 
permission of the publishers, Henry Holt & Co., New York. 

rectly answer many very pertinent questions, such as 
the following: Was it not entirely possible for such 
great men even as the originators of the cell-theory to 
be deceived ? Is it proper to stake such enormous in¬ 
terests as those of human life and health upon such a 
slight and ephemeral resemblance as that which 
subsists between the so-called “ primordial animal 
cell,” and the cells that are concerned in the propa¬ 
gation and construction of the bodies of men and 



282 


EXISTING THEORIES CRITICALLY EXAMINED 


animals ? Is it not the proper thing to disavow and 
cast aside any proposition, however authoritative, 
which is so eminently far-fetched and illogical as the 
leucocytic subdivision of the cell-theory now appears 
to be? 

Let any intelligent individual first divest himself 
of preconceived notions and authoritative restraints 
and then subject the existing literature pertaining to 
and growing out of the cell-theory to a thorough and 
unbiased examination, and he will discern in the cold 
type and between the lines of almost every page the 
unmistakable evidences of the fact that the minor 
premise of the cell-theory is absolutely fallacious in 
its make-up and essentially ruinous in its effects. 

The ultimate judgment of the scientific world will 
be, that investigators in biology, physiology and 
haematology have incidentally paved the way for the 
destruction of the greatest obstacle to medical ad¬ 
vancement that has ever existed, by working out and 
recording the various facts and phenomena exhibited 
by the leucocyte. For it will be seen upon due investi¬ 
gation that every work they have published is to be 
regarded as a compendium of evidence to the effect 
that the white corpuscle is neither more nor less than 
a particle of decaying organic matter, and exceed¬ 
ingly detrimental to vital interests in general. 

A CRUSHING ARRAIGNMENT. 

Attention is called to the additional and very 
significant fact that the current opinion concerning 
the leucocyte finds its sole illustrative support in the 




THE CELL-THEORY 


283 


composition and performance of the amoeba—a thing 
which is open to the further charge of having its 
origin in places and under circumstances which are 
positively, not to say overwhelmingly, discrediting 
to the assumption that it is a thing of life, as a critical 
examination of the current teaching on the subject 
will show. 

Under the heading “The Animal Cell, Its Mor¬ 
phology and Physiology,” Prof. Dodge tells the stu¬ 
dent where to find and how to produce the amoeba, 
and in the following terms: 

‘ 1 Good specimens may usually be found by scrap¬ 
ing the slimy surface of water plants, washing damp 
sphagnum moss, skimming the mud in the bottom of 
ponds and ditches; or raised artificially by keeping 
such mud, together with decaying leaves, algae, and 
other water plants in a warm dark place for a few 
days. Such cultivations should be closely watched, as 
amoebae are likely to disappear rapidly in the course 
of a few days after they are first found. A little fresh 
water should be added to the cultivation from day to 
day. If amoebae are to be kept in aquaria, be care¬ 
ful to see that all snails are removed, otherwise they 
may devour the specimens.”—“Elementary Practical 
Biology,” p. 6, Ed. 1894, by permission of the Pub¬ 
lishers, Harper & Brothers, New York. 

The very fact that the amoeba is produced in con¬ 
nection with “mud” and “decaying leaves” ought 
to be sufficient to satisfy all men that it is not a pro- 
tozoon, but a particle of decaying organic matter and 
the food of various aquatic creatures, from snails and 
the protozoa proper on down to the other organisms 
of microscopic proportions which are found in the 



284 


EXISTING THEORIES CRITICALLY EXAMINED 


same watery habitat. The truth is, the glutinous ele¬ 
ment of the decaying plant is soaked out and then 
formed by cohesive attraction into those masses which 
are called amoebae, and that that part of the amoeba 
and of the leucocyte which is variously termed the 
“vacuole,” and the “contractile vesicle” is simply 
that portion of their substance which is being the 
more rapidly dissolved. Be it repeated and carefully 
noted that every change, whether of form, or position, 
or appearance, that we see in these inhabitants of 
stagnant ponds and diseased bodies, is logically at¬ 
tributable to physical and chemical agencies—to the 
forces of adhesion, disintegration, gaseous expansion 
and chemotaxis. The truth is, we have been so thor¬ 
oughly bedazzled by the completeness of their simula¬ 
tions of life, that it has been practically impossible to 
discern the significance of the evidence that they have 
afforded to the contrary. 

The various organisms that go to make up the 
animal and vegetable kingdoms, together with the 
fungi and the germs on which infection depends, have 
a definite and practically uniform contour and a no 
less definite manner and order of development. But 
that matchless deceiver, the leucocyte, stands almost 
alone in its morphological versatility, in its inde¬ 
finable shapelessness and in its developmental irreg¬ 
ularities, its only counterpart being the equally ir¬ 
regular, shapeless and deceptive thing which is called 
the amoeba. The study of the morphology and of the 
events that transpire in the life history of plants, 
animals, fungi and disease-germs, enables us to de- 



THE CELL-THEORY 


285 


scribe with commendable accuracy the changes which 
will take place in the growth, development and decline 
of succeeding generations of the same. But no such 
advantage can be had from the study of the leucocyte; 
for it utterly defies the highest powers and possibili¬ 
ties of human prevision, not so much as a fairly ac¬ 
curate conception of the changes that it is destined to 
undergo being at all possible. 

At best the history of the leucocyte can only be 
approximately described in advance of its coming by 
saying; it w T ill start out as a spheroidal, non-nuclear 
and non-motile albuminoid mass; that at some future 
but indeterminable period it will appear as a mono¬ 
nuclear object of no certain, but very uncertain con¬ 
figuration ; that it will appear at a little later but very 
uncertain moment of time as a grotesquely irregular 
motus corpusculum, or moving body, and that at a 
still later, but uncertain period, it will fall to pieces 
and disappear—all this without bestowing upon its 
host so much as a single discoverable benefaction. 

This interpretation of the nature, origin and ac¬ 
tion of the leucocyte and the amoeba, expressed over 
six years ago in the original draft of this work, has 
found incidental corroboration in the observations of 
Mr. Edwin Linton, set forth in the following article, 
which appeared in Science, July 21st, 1905. 

“THE DEATH ( ?) OF AH AMOEBA.” 

“While watching some amoebae on February 8, 
I observed one which was behaving in a singular 
manner. Instead of progressing in one direction this 



286 


EXISTING THEORIES CRITICALLY EXAMINED 


one appeared to be in a state of indecision. One end, 
which for convenience I shall call the anterior, was 
constantly trying to go in one direction. At the other 
end there was in progress an active formation of 
pseudopodia and an apparent endeavor to move in 
the opposite direction. The parenchyma of the 
amoeba contained a rather larger amount of granular 
material than usual, and this was a little more abun¬ 
dant towards the posterior end. 

“The formation of pseudopodia at the posterior 
end was first in one direction (Fig. 1) and then in 



“(Sketches of a dividing amoeba made from memory a few minutes after 
the events which they illustrate has been observed. 1, la, pseudopodia at 
opposite ends of the animal with energetic flow of the endosarc In opposite 
directions; 2, cessation of struggle, movement In only one, direction- 3 re¬ 
newal of struggle with elongation of animal; 4, beginning of division-' 5 ’ and 
6, division completed, 5 normal, 6 abnormal new amoeba; 7, position assumed 
by 6 a few seconds later; 8, spontaneous disruption of 7. No nucleus was 
seen.)"—From Science. 

another (Fig. la). This was accompanied by simul¬ 
taneous formations of pseudopodia at the anterior 
end. The intracellular struggle which then ensued, 




THE CELL-THEORY 


287 


during which the granular protoplasm flowed from 
the central region into both posterior and anterior 
pseudopodia, would continue for a few sec¬ 
onds, to be followed by the retraction of the 
pseudopodia and a few seconds of quiet. At 
last (Fig. 3), after two or three such trials, 
there appeared to ensue a determined struggle be¬ 
tween the opposing ends of the animal. Soon the cen¬ 
tral portion became narrow and thread-like (Fig. 4). 
This connection at last broke, and it was then seen 
that the animal had divided into two approximately 
equal parts. The part which had been the posterior 
region contained more than half of the coarse gran¬ 
ules. The new individuals moved away from each 
other in opposite directions, each following the di¬ 
rection of its previous efforts. The one that had been 
the anterior end of the undivided animal not only 
contained fewer granules than the other, hut it also 
had a larger proportion of clear protoplasm at its 
anterior end. It behaved normally and quickly 
moved out of the field. The other (Fig. 6), after mov¬ 
ing in a normal manner for a few seconds, ceased to 
form psuedopodia, and assumed an irregularly spher¬ 
oidal shape (Fig. 7). 

“Up to this point I supposed I had been witness¬ 
ing an ordinary case of division. Then occurred what 
looked like the dissolution of this bit of supposely im¬ 
mortal living substance. The ectosarc and proto¬ 
plasm disappeared suddenly as if by a disruptive ex¬ 
plosion, the larger globular granules remaining as an 
inert mass (Fig. 8). 

“It would appear that the posterior half of the 
original animal was too heavily charged with gran¬ 
ular bodies. The ruptured surface failed to heal over. 
Rapid osmosis took place. The dense protoplasm 
increased in bulk rapidly until the ectosarc, no longer 



288 


EXISTING THEORIES CRITICALLY EXAMINED 


able to resist the pressure from within gave way 
suddenly. 

“ There was sufficient vegetable debris present to 
keep the specimen from being crushed by the cover- 
glass. 

“No signs of life could be seen in the disinte¬ 
grated part. It was simply a cluster of granules with 
no coherence and no connecting material. 

“The length of the undivided animal was about 
0.03 millimeter. Several other amoebae of the same 
size and appearance were observed in the culture, but 
none were seen behaving in an abnormal way. As I 
did not realize that I had been witnessing anything 
unusual until the final catastrophe, the time occupied 
by the division and the subsequent events up to the 
disruption of the short-lived half was not noted. The 
whole operation lasted but a short time, probably 
little longer than one minute.’’ (Signed) Edwin 
Linton. 

Now there is a world of significance in the changes 
that Mr. Linton has thus placed on record, and ap¬ 
parently without seeing it—namely, that the amoeba, 
the prototype of the leucocyte, is not a real “animal,” 
but a pseudo-animal; not a real cell, but a psuedo- 
cell, not genuine protoplasm, but the hypothetical 
protoplasm, or pseudo-protoplasm, that is found in 
stagnant ponds; that the plasm-like inhabitant of the 
blood is not the real “physical basis of life,” but the 
psuedo-basis thereof, closely related in character to 
“bathybius,” the pelagic material set forth by Prof. 
Huxley as protoplasm of the most fundamental order 
—a purely hypothetical vagary which was exploded 
during the lifetime of its illustrious author. 



IMPORTANT ADMISSIONS 


289 


Be it noted in passing that I do not claim to be 
entirely alone in the recognition of the fact that the 
cell-theory is not as conclusive and dependable as it 
is generally supposed to he. The fact that others 
have become more or less aware of its deficiencies and 
adumbrations is becoming more and more evident as 
the years come and go. The following instances must 
suffice: 

In a lecture delivered in the Marine Biological 
Laboratory, Wood’s Holl, and entitled “The Inade¬ 
quacy of the Cell-Theory of Development,” C. O. 
Whitman gives many valid reasons for questioning 
the cell-theory as now taught, not the least of which is 
the following: 

“The essence of organization can no more lie in 
the number of nuclei than the number of cells. The 
structure which we see in a cell-mosaic is something 
superadded to organization, not itself the foundation 
of organization. Comparative embryology reminds 
us at every turn that the organism dominates cell- 
formation, using for the same purpose one, several, 
or many cells, massing its material and directing its 
movements, and shaping its organs, as if cells did not 
exist, or as if they existed only in complete subordi¬ 
nation to its will, if I may so speak.”—Biological 
Lectures, 1893, p. 199. 

Prof. Whitman wound up his discussion with the 
following significant quotation from Prof. Huxley: 

“They (the cells) are no more the producers of the 
vital phenomena than the shells scattered along the 
sea-beach are the instruments by which the gravita- 
tive force of the moon acts upon the ocean. Like 



290 


EXISTING THEORIES CRITICALLY EXAMINED 


these, the cells mark only where the vital tides have 
been and how they have acted. 77 

Now I would respectfully and earnestly submit 
that if these great men had taken one more step in the 
direction of independent observation and reasoning 
they would have detected the fallacies lurking in the 
leucocytic sub-division of the cell-theory. For, in 
that event, they would have seen that the so-called 
white blood corpuscle is not the primordial animal 
cell as the earlier investigators were led by its form 
and performance to suppose, but a death-dealing 
foreign body, as its scarcity in health and great prev¬ 
alence in disease naturally imply. 

For the sake of putting a final quietus, if possi¬ 
ble, upon the most unfortunate of all mistakes, atten¬ 
tion will again be called to the following well-known 
facts, the significance of which has escaped detection 
on account of the bedazzling ignis fatuus, or false 
light, afforded by the motility of the leucocyte, or so- 
called white blood corpuscle: 

1. The fact that in times of health there is in 
the blood, on the average, only one “ white blood cor¬ 
puscle 7 7 to between six hundred and one thousand of 
the red corpuscles—things known to be normal and 
indispensable—a discrepancy which plainly implies 
that the white corpuscles are not only unimportant, 
but essentially hurtful or destructive according to 
the extent of their prevalence. 

2. The fact that in times of ill health, or dis¬ 
ease, the number of the white corpuscles is unusually 






OTHER LEUCOCYTE PUZZLES 


291 


large to begin with and that it increases in exact ratio, 
or nearly so, to the increase in the severity of the 
morbid process, the ultimate result in many cases be¬ 
ing a decided preponderance of these so-called cells 
and a corresponding decline of the vital forces and 
structures, the body perishing in spite of the vastness 
of its army of “tissue-builders” and “vigilant 
policemen.” 

LEUCOCYTHEMIA AND POLYCYTHEMIA. 

Among the multitude of enigmas that the cell- 
theory has sprung upon the medical profession and 
with the effect of confusion doubly confounded, is 
that widely variable trouble which is termed Leu- 
cocythemia. Dunglison’s definition of this term is: 

“ Condition of the blood consisting in a superabun¬ 
dant development of the white corpuscles—polycy¬ 
themia—a disease at times accompanied by enlarge¬ 
ment of the spleen and liver, and by increased size 
of the lymphatic glands (organs which are concerned 
in haematosis or Lymphaemia), anaemia, fever, 
haemorrhages, etc. It is usually fatal. It is the 
Leucocytosis of Virchow. The red blood corpuscles 
are diminished in number.” 

This problem has provoked a vast amount of in¬ 
vestigation ; the best talent of modern times has been 
engaged in the work; a half-century of time has been 
consumed in the attempt to solve the riddle and to 
no purpose. 

The fact that this problem is as problematic as 
ever may be seen by reference to an Editorial which 
appeared not long ago in one of our leading period- 



292 


EXISTING THEORIES CRITICALLY EXAMINED 


icals. The heading and first paragraph of this edi¬ 
torial are as follows: 

"polycythemia.” 

‘ i Conditions involving quantitative and qualitative 
changes in the white blood corpuscles have received 
a great deal of attention ever since the improved 
technique elaborated by Ehrlich and his pupils has 
enabled us to recognize the various types of these 
blood elements. In addition to what may be called 
symptomatic changes in the leucocytes, such as abso¬ 
lute and relative leucocytoses and leucopenias, a dis¬ 
tinct class of diseases of the blood itself, the leukae¬ 
mias, has been discovered. The ultimate factors 
underlying these conditions have not as yet been 
found, though the real seat of the disease has been 
demonstrated to be in the blood-making organs of 
the body.”—From the Medical Record, May 2, 1908, 
page 737, by the courtesy of the publishers, Wm. 
Wood & Co., New York. 

Now, I would respectfully submit, and without the 
slightest desire or intention of offending anyone, that 
if the facts involved in the phenomenon of polycy¬ 
themia have any such thing as an incontestible mean¬ 
ing, it is that the leucocyte is not a living cell, but a 
particle of dead and perishable material—that every 
change referred to in the discussion of the subject 
from the least to the greatest, the diminution of the 
red corpuscles not excepted, goes to show that the 
white corpuscle does not belong in the category of 
living cells, but in that of dead and useless material— 
that it is in reality and beyond all peradventure a 
mortuous corpusculum and of the worse order at 




LEUCOCYTIC TAXATION 


293 


that, as the facts set forth in this and the following 
chapters certainly show. 

The enormity of the labor that has been worse than 
wasted in consequence of the deception involved in 
the ephemeral motility of the white corpuscle is be¬ 
yond computation. Some idea of the tax thus im¬ 
posed upon the profession can be gained by a care¬ 
ful study of the terminology of the subject and of the 
various works on haematology and pathology. The 
number of the names that have been coined in de¬ 
scribing the changes that the leucocyte undergoes 
and the accompanying disorders is within itself a 
very fine exemplification of the amount of labor that 
has been expended in consequence of the deception 
imposed by the white blood corpuscle. By reference 
to Dunglison’s Medical Dictionary, edition of 1895, 
it will be seen that up to that time there had been 
originated no less than one hundred and twelve 
names and terms of the kind in question. 

But the greatest of all evidences of the tax that 
the leucocyte has imposed is that to be found in the 
annals of disease, as we find them recorded in the 
standard and periodical literature of the period dur¬ 
ing which the cell-theory has been regnant. For 
there is scarcely so much as a single discussion of 
vital phenomena, normal or abnormal, in which the 
leucocyte does not figure to a considerable extent. 
Nor can it be denied that the more this supposely 
immortal and indispensable particle has figured in 
our literature the more confusing and interminable 
has the investigation of vital phenomena, normal and 


294 


EXISTING THEORIES CRITICALLY EXAMINED 


abnormal, proved to be. Unutterably bad as this 
tax upon investigators has been, it is not to be com¬ 
pared to that imposed upon the persons and purses 
of the world at large, as the facts and explanations 
set forth in the following chapters certainly show. 

In short, many years of careful study and experi¬ 
mentation have demonstrated beyond all peradven- 
ture that the cell-theory as now constituted has by 
virtue of its plausibility proved to be the most mis¬ 
leading and calamitous proposition that was ever 
advanced—causing, as it did, the ablest talent known 
to the annals of science to regard the leucocyte as 
the “primordial animal cell” and an indispensable 
element of the blood, when it is in reality the greatest 
of all disease-producing and life-destroying agencies. 

In short, the irony of the situation into which the 
leucocytic addendum to the cell-theory has led us is 
not only perfectly discernible, but as cruel and re¬ 
lentless as the grave, since it is to the effect that the 
more “tissue-building” material (white corpuscles) 
the sick man carries in his circulation the more pro¬ 
nounced is his debility and emaciation, and that the 
more “vigilant policemen” (phagocytes) he has to 
guard and defend him, the more certain and speedy 
is his destruction. 

For these reasons I do not hesitate to affirm that 
the leucocytic subdivision of the cell-theory has none 
of the characteristics of a legitimate explanatory 
proposition. Its premises are as inadmissible as the 
reasoning upon them is inconclusive. It postulates 
what it professes to explain. It is a solution in terms 



NOT LIGHT, BUT DARKNESS 


295 


more mysterious than the problem of life itself—a 
solution of an equation by imaginary roots, of un¬ 
known quantities. It is an explanation, of which it 
would be unmerited praise to say it leaves the phe¬ 
nomena of life where it found them. For it is an 
undeniable fact that it cast such a dense shadow over 
the phenomenon it professed to explain that the 
greatest intellects that the world has produced have 
not been able to see any one of the countless reasons 
for its rejection, the greatest of which is the world 
of wreckage that has been produced in consequence 
of attempts to build up tissues that have not been 
destroyed, and by means which are essentially de¬ 
structive, as the facts set forth in the following 
chapters will show. 



CHAPTER XIV. 


PATHOGEN AND PATHOGENOSIS—A NEW THEORY OF 
DISEASE. 

Explaining the Rapid Increase and Universal Reign 
of Diseases in general and of the Incurable and 
Suddenly Fatal in particular, by pointing out the 
ACTIVE AND HITHERTO UNKNOWN CAUSE OF DISEASE 
—the Material that produces Congestion, curtails 
Nutrition, prevents Elimination, invites Infection 
and gives rise to Catarrhal matter, Fibrous mate¬ 
rial, Hyaline bodies, Colloid substance, Cancer- 
cells and Tubercular Matter. 

The broadest and most significant hints that Na¬ 
ture has given to the inquiring pathologist—to the 
man who would determine the causes which are at 
the bottom of that vast range of effects which we term 
diseases—reside in three classes of facts and phe¬ 
nomena, the first of which is headed by depletion, 
or a lowered vitality; the second by congestion, or a 
localized interference with the blood flow; the third, 
by infection, or the transmission of certain diseases 
from one individual to another. 

Class one involves the fact that diseases in gen¬ 
eral begin with lassitude — which means that the vital 
energies have been depleted or lowered; the fact that 
lassitude is followed by prostration — which means 
that the vital forces have become well nigh exhausted; 
the fact that prostration is followed by death — which 
means that all the vital energies, physical, nervous 
and thermal have been extinguished. 


IMPORTANT EVIDENCES 


297 


Class two involves the fact that the active stage 
of diseases in general is ushered in by c ongestion — 
which means that the capillaries of the affected part 
have become obstructed; the fact that congestion is 
followed by inflammation, which means that vital 
resistance has been aroused by the obstructing ma¬ 
terial ; the fact that inflammation is followed by ne¬ 
crosis or slopghing, or gangrene—which terms mean 
that the offending material could be removed by 
neither resolution nor the impact of the vital current, 
and that the subjacent tissues have perished in conse¬ 
quence of the attending irritation, inflammation and 
innutrition, or tissue-starvation. 

Class three involves the fact that in most dis¬ 
eases the circulating fluids and waste products of the 
body are swarming with disease germs of various 
kinds, and the fact that the action of these germs 
depends upon the previous existence within the body 
of a suitable soil. In addition to the two hints em¬ 
braced in this class is that which resides in the well 
known fact that the infective organism is a tertium 
quid or third agent, which has the power to reduce 
the unstable or more perishable forms of organic mat¬ 
ter to the inorganic state, which it does by bringing 
their combustible elements—carbon and hydrogen— 
into combination with oxygen. 

It is one of the best known facts of to-day that 
not so much as a single one of these facts, momentous 
as they evidently are, has ever been so much as fairly 
explained, nor have they been adequately defined. It 




298 


PATHOGEN AND PATHOGENOSIS 


may not be amiss, therefore, to point out a few of the 
delinquencies of which I speak. J 

Dunglison defines the foregoing sjrmptoms as fol¬ 
lows: “ Lassitude, Fatigue, during which the func¬ 
tions are performed with less vigor than usual.” 
“Congestion, Engorgement, Accumulation of blood 
in an organ; important symptom in febrile and other 
disorders; may arise either from an extraordinary 
flow of blood by the arteries, or from a difficulty in 
the return of the blood to the heart by the veins.” 

In short, these definitions leave us completely 
in the dark concerning the very things we need most 
of all to know—namely, the cause of the “extraordi¬ 
nary flow” in the arteries, and of the “difficulty in 
the return” of the blood to the heart. Says Dungli¬ 
son : “Inflammation is not easily defined, except by 
its symptoms and pathological changes. Simple ac¬ 
cumulation of blood in the capillaries is hyperaemia, 
not inflammation.” The author proceeds by naming 
the various changes to which he refers, but fails to 
explain either the inflammation itself or the changes 
that it produces. All authorities admit that Infec¬ 
tive Organisms depend for their action upon the ex¬ 
istence within the body of what they call a “suitable 
soil” but they have utterly failed to show what this 
soil is. It is well known that all inflammatory pro¬ 
cesses other than those of traumatic origin, begin 
with congestion. These things being true it follows 
that if it can be shown that the invalid is burdened 
with material which is of such a nature that it will 
both favor the propagation of infective organisms 



THE GREATER OF TWO CAUSES 


299 


and serve to obstruct the capillaries, there can be no 
escape from the conclusions: (1), that the basic cause 
of congestion and inflammation has been discovered; 
(2), that the susceptibility of the body to infection 
has been explained; (3), that the greater of the two 
causes on which disease confessedly depends has 
been revealed, and, (4), that all the advantages that 
such items of information naturally imply will be 
ours to possess. That is to say, the explanation of 
congestion and of the susceptibility of the body to 
infection will enable us to conceive and execute pur¬ 
poses which have thus far been beyond the pale of 
human achievement—namely, the prevention of dis¬ 
eases which have seemed to be unavoidable, and the 
eradication of maladies which have appeared to be 
incurable. 

THE UNSUSPECTED CAUSE OF DISEASE. 

Investigations prosecuted in the light of the fore¬ 
going theory of life, have resulted in the perception 
of the fact that diseases in general, infectious and 
non-infectious, owe their incipiency and most of 
their subsequent history to the presence in the circu¬ 
lation of material v T hich is so extremely antagonistic 
to vital interests that it is entitled not only to the 
first place in the category of disease-producing agen¬ 
cies, but to the further distinction of having a name 
of its own. Hence, the fact that it has been named 
pathogen —a term that the writer has ventured to 
construct from the Greek roots path —which means to 
suffer, and gen —which means to generate, or produce. 




I 


300 PATHOGEN AND PATHOGENOSIS 


The material in question is somewhat viscid to 
begin with and becomes more and more so as time 
advances until it must, of necessity, interfere with 
vital operations in general, which it does in many 
ways, among which are the following: First, by irri¬ 
tating the nerves and nervous centers, thus producing 
nervous phenomena of various kinds; second, by 
clogging the capillaries of the alimentary tract, de¬ 
feating both the digestion of the food and the replen¬ 
ishment of the nutrient cells of the tract—a two-fold 
injury which finds expression in the depreciation of 
both the resilience and the peristaltic motion of the 
alimentary canal and consequently a tendency to con¬ 
stipation and intussusception; third, by defeating in 
like manner the nutrition of the nervous and muscu¬ 
lar systems, the effects being lassitude, debility, pros¬ 
tration or death, according to the extent and fixity of 
the pathogenic involvement; fourth, by occluding the 
capillaries, in consequence of which other material of 
the same kind is forced by the pressure of the blood 
to escape into the interstitial spaces, the primary 
effects being the congestion, obstruction and tume¬ 
faction which we see in the beginning of morbid pro¬ 
cesses in general; fifth, by irritating and destroying 
the tissues in which it happens to lodge, the same as 
other foreign bodies; sixth, by decaying and causing 
the tissues to decay, thus producing the various symp¬ 
toms that follow in the wake of congestion,—namely, 
heat, pain, redness, altered function, tissue-starva¬ 
tion, pus-formation, sloughing and gangrene; 
seventh, by clogging the various emunctories, causing 






INVASION OF PATHOGEN 


301 


the waste matters to accumulate until the vascular 
system is seriously encumbered with them; eighth, by 
decaying within the tissues, producing toxic and sed¬ 
imentary materials of various kinds; ninth, by escap¬ 
ing into the parenchyma of the lungs and into other 
parts of the body, where it is reduced to a coagulum 
in consequence of either microbic action or dehydra¬ 
tion, or both together, and where it is formed in ac¬ 
cordance with a well known law of nature into those 
tiny globular masses which are characteristic of the 
world’s greatest scourge—namely, tubercules; tenth, 
by assuming the shape of a tumor or malignant 
growth of some kind. 

Pathogen finds its way into the circulation so 
gradually and stealthily that the vital current is se¬ 
riously contaminated with it before its presence 
therein is realized; it is, to begin with, a glairy, par¬ 
tially diffusible and somewhat viscid substance; as 
time advances it becomes less and less diffusible and 
more and more viscid, until it finds its way through 
the capillaries with more or less difficulty, if at all; at 
a somewhat later period it becomes so thick and sticky 
that it can but besmear or completely occlude the 
glands and capillaries, as above stated. This inter¬ 
ference with glandular and capillary action occurs, 
as a rule, after these structures have been reduced in 
calibre in consequence of exposure to dampness or 
chilling draughts, the series of effects of most fre¬ 
quent occurrence being, the congestion, irritation, 
febrile action and transudation, that we see in the 
oncoming, progression and termination of coryza, 




302 


PATHOGEN AND PATHOGENOSIS 


or “cold in the head,”—all this occurring sometimes 
in the absence of the exposures on which such trou¬ 
bles are supposed to depend, and for the reason that 
the material in question becomes so highly concen¬ 
trated that it can no longer find its way through per¬ 
fectly patulous capillaries, and must therefore be¬ 
come impacted therein. 

THE VERSATILITY OF PATHOGEN . 

Pathogen in a changed, or partially decomposed 
state, is the material that is transuded from the mu¬ 
cous surfaces—pushed out of the circulating system, 
as it were,—in the progress of coryza, catarrh, 
asthma, influenza, otorrhea, blephorrhea, leucorrhea, 
gonorrhea, bronchorrhea and pulmonary consump¬ 
tion, the sputa of the consumptive being, not the 
“debris of wasted tissues,” as the doctrine of meta¬ 
bolism and the phenomena of emaciation and debil¬ 
ity have led the world to believe, but one form of that 
mighty Proteus of pathology, Pathogen. 

Pathogen is both well-known and absolutely un¬ 
known to the scientific world—well-known as an in¬ 
cumbent of the circulating system, but entirely un¬ 
known as the cause par excellence of the physical and 
mental wreckage that we see in the world; it is known 
to science as serum albumin and other albuminous 
incumbents of the living organism, and to the writer 
hereof as partially elaborated organic matter— as 
a derivative of those elements of the ingesta which 
had for some reason proved refractory to the diges¬ 
tive capacity of their host—namely, Amylum, Gluten, 




ORIGINATION OF CANCER CELLS 


303 


Cellulose and the Fibroid elements of flesli-f oods. In 
short, pathogen is known to the discoverer thereof as 
the material on which congestion depends, and the 
thing that paves the way for the propagation of in¬ 
fective organisms by affording them a “ suitable 
soil.” 

For reasons now stated and yet to be stated, I do 
not hesitate to affirm that pathogen is the principal 
cause of all diapedesis, metastasis, atrophy, hyper¬ 
trophy, obesity, sclerosis, porosis, keratosis, throm¬ 
bosis, adenosis, icthyosis, fibrosis, leucocytosis, kera- 
tomycosis, actinomycosis, carcinosis, and tuberculo¬ 
sis, save such of these effects as may be attributed to 
traumatic agencies. 

GENESIS OF TUBERCLES AND CANCER-CELLS. 

Pathogen presents itself to the eye of the investi¬ 
gator in a variety of forms or varying degrees of con¬ 
sistency, from a fluidity which is thinner than the 
thinnest of all specimens of catarrhal matter on up to 
those spheroidal solidifications which are termed 
Tubercles and Cancer-cells, the thinner material giv¬ 
ing rise to the more concentrated by undergoing a 
species of inspissation, or dehydration, as above 
stated. After pathogen has reached a certain degree 
of concentration it is broken in its passage through 
the trabeculae of the spleen and lymphatic glands 
(as molten lead is broken by the wire diaphragm of 
a shot tower) into those globular masses of plastic 
material which have thus far been misunderstood, and 
therefore, misnamed, “white blood corpuscles.” 



304 


PATHOGEN AND PATHOGENOSIS 


These so-called “blood cells” owe their growth, as a 
rule, to the adherence thereto of other material of 
like nature which is floating in the blood stream. 
Sometimes two or more of these masses are blended 
into one, thus forming those larger albuminoid bodies 
which are called “giant cells,” “cancer cells,” and 
“hyaline bodies.” Let it be carefully noted in pass¬ 
ing that mere aggregation is not growth, and that 
simple cleavage is not reproduction. 

AMOEBOID MOVEMENTS EXPLAINED. 

Those distortions on which the migratory or amoe¬ 
boid movements of the leucocyte depend, and which 
have seemed to indicate that it is endowed with life, 
are chiefly attributable, I believe, to the action of the 
carbon dioxide gas that is generated within it as it 
passes into decay. That is to say, it is the expansion 
of this gas that gives rise to those protrusions of the 
leucocyte which are called pseudopodia, while the 
escape of the gas into the aqueous element of the 
blood permits it (the leucocyte) to resume its for¬ 
mer shape, which it does in obedience to that power 
that gives rotundity to various things, from the dew- 
drops to the celestial spheres; the fact that after a 
leucocyte has sent out a pseudopod its fundus is 
drawn in that direction, is due to the adhesion of the 
former to the containing vessel and the subsequent es¬ 
cape of the gas in question; in short, the leucocyte, 
or so-called “white blood corpuscle,” is not what it 
appears to be. It has impressed the world that it is 
a living organism—a living cell—and the “physical 



A MISINTERPRETATION OF FACTS 


305 


basis of life,” when the fact is, it is not a living cell, 
but a mortuus corpusculum , or lifeless corpuscle, 
owing its motility to the forces not of life, but 
of death—to adhesion, gaseous expansion and 
chemotaxis. 

I do not hesitate to affirm that every “nucleus” 
and every “nucleolus” that we see in a leucocyte is 
simply a collection of residual matter (the earthy 
remains of that arch destroyer, pathogen) and is to 
be regarded, therefore, as a focus of decay; that the 
segmentation of the leucocyte is not a matter of “ vital 
duplication,” as has been supposed, but of progres¬ 
sive disintegration; that the increase of its size is due 
not to growth, but to accretion or the adherence of 
particles of kindred material which are floating in the 
blood stream, as above stated. 

A NEW INTERPRETATION OF FACTS. 

The fact that the leucocyte becomes less active in 
consequence of the lowering of its temperature, is 
attributable to the consequent checking of decompo¬ 
sition ; the fact that it becomes more active in conse¬ 
quence of an increase of its temperature, is due to 
the consequent increase of the disintegrating process; 
the fact that it is “ killed, ” as biologists have declared, 
by iodine, arsenic, and other poisons, is due, not to the 
destruction of its life, as they have supposed, but to 
the preservative action of these drugs. 

The leucocytes are not the “vigilant policemen 
of the vital domain” as we have been led by their 
performances to believe, but owe their so-called 



306 


PATHOGEN AND PATHOGENOSIS 


i1 phagocytic’’ powers to their viscidity, or extreme 
adhesiveness. That is to say, they (the leucocytes) 
gather the bacteria by sticking to and flowing around 
them. This is followed by the destruction, not of the 
bacteria, but of the leucocytes. The leucocyte is not 
the destroyer but the thing destroyed. The former is 
a particle of useless organic matter, and it is the 
function of the latter to decompose it, the incidental 
effects being, first, infection; second, the disease that 
the infection represents; third, the disintegration and 
discharge of the offending material and the return of 
health. But it is all too frequently the case that death 
occurs, the amount of the offending material being so 
great that the patient becomes exhausted before the 
eliminating process can be completed. 

Whenever decay begins upon the outside of the 
young leucocytes or so-called “round cells,” they are 
transformed into “pus corpuscles,” which are so 
hard to distinguish from the round cells that the 
question whether they are or are not identical, has 
been exceedingly difficult to determine, so difficult, 
in fact, that it was the subject of much controversy 
some fifty years ago, and could only be settled by the 
dictum of the most eminent physiologist of that day, 
Prof. Virchow, and wrongly at that as the present 
discussion will certainly show. 

THE ARCH-DECEIVER AND DESTROYER. 

Pathogen is the arch-deceiver as well as the arch¬ 
destroyer of the race, since it has for centuries been 
masquerading as a friend in mercy given and under 



THE ARCH-DECEIVER 


307 


many and widely disparate forms and guises, deceiv¬ 
ing the very elect of the scientific world, and quite as 
successfully in one garb as another. Now and then 
it appears upon the vital stage as glycogen; far more 
frequently it appears in the shape of a coterie of be¬ 
nignant albumoses; at a subsequent period it under¬ 
goes “vital duplication” and sallies forth in the gay 
attire and benevolent demeanor of “ embryonal 
cells”; when the curtain is again drawn these “young 
cells” appear in the business-like form of animated 
leucocytes, gliding hither and thither, in and out of 
the circulating system, and taking to themselves the 
credit of being both the architects and the “vigilant 
policemen” of the vital domain; in case the object of 
their solicitude, the body, suffers a solution of con¬ 
tinuity in any of its tissues, they appear upon the 
scene in the guise of reparative “differentiation”; in 
the event that the citadel of life is assailed by any one 
of the wasting diseases they assemble in multitudi¬ 
nous groups and in defensive array, crowding both 
the channels of life and the intervening spaces and in 
constantly increasing numbers, appearing when the 
end comes in the role of chief mourners, when they 
are in reality the perpetrators of the heart-rending 
tragedy. 

Under the heading, “The Aggressin Theory/' 
the Editor of the Journal of the American Medical 
Association (Sept. 9,1905), began by saying: 

“Virulence, resistance, susceptibility and the like 
are terms commonly used with reference to infectious 
diseases to express certain properties of the infect- 



308 


PATHOGEN AND PATHOGENOSIS 


ing and infected organisms. While they are useful, 
still it is true that very little is known of the real 
nature of the conditions designated. A great part of 
the experimental work now being done in infectious 
diseases is carried on with a view of making our 
knowledge on such points more precise and it is prob¬ 
able that in time these words will be replaced by more 
exact ones as new facts accumulate. ”—By permission 
of the publishers. 

The “more exact’’ word has now been coined and 
applied, namely, pathogen. This is the thing that 
lies at the bottom of both “the virulence” and the 
“susceptibility,” and makes necessary the “resist¬ 
ance” of which this writer speaks. Pathogen is the 
thing which has so deceived the medical philosophers 
that they regard the most obnoxious form thereof as 
“the most precious part of the blood,” when it is in 
reality the arch destroyer of the vital realm. 

DIVERSITIES OF PATHOGENOSIS. 

The pathogen which is of amylaceous antecedents 
is transformed into glucose, which (being more solu¬ 
ble) is disposed of with comparative ease, and is, 
therefore, only moderately pathogenic in its effects, 
the troubles of the diabetic being chiefly due to the 
obstructive action of that which is of albuminoid an¬ 
tecedents. That is to say, albuminoid pathogen is 
the principal factor in the causation of diabetes as 
well as other diseases, and begins its deadly work, as 
a rule, by assailing the organ on which the mainten¬ 
ance of life chiefly depends, and in some one or all of 
the following ways: First, by besmearing the walls of 



DIRE EFFECTS OF PATHOGEN 


309 


the gastric (stomach) capillaries, thus impeding the 
circulation, impairing the nutrition of the gastric 
muscles, hampering the action of the glands and re¬ 
ducing both the quantity and quality of the digestive 
secretion; second, by escaping into the gastric cavity 
in the shape of a catarrhal transudate, which not only 
displaces an equal amount of food, but besmears the 
gastric walls, the effects being the sealing up of the 
orifices of the peptic glands and a corresponding re¬ 
duction of the quality and quantity of the digestive 
juices; third, by occluding a large percentage of the 
gastric capillaries, thus producing inflammation (gas¬ 
tritis) and a corresponding increase of the digestive 
disturbance; fourth, by prolonging the irritation and 
malnutrition above referred to until necrosis of the 
gastric tissues is established; fifth, by depreciating 
the powers of resistance to such an extent that some of 
this illy prepared material in the shape of so-called 
“cancer bodies,” may invade the interstitial spaces 
of the gastric laboratory and assume the shape and 
virulence of a cancerous growth—items of informa¬ 
tion which would have been obtained long ago had the 
human stomach been so much as fairly open to scien¬ 
tific investigation. The stomach cannot be properly 
examined during life, and the moment death occurs 
the gastric juices contained therein begin to act upon 
its tissues, obliterating in a very short time nearly 
every trace of the conditions that existed when death 
occurred. 

INSOLUBILITY OF PATHOGEN. 

The pathogen derived from cellulose, lignin and 
fibroid tissue is practically insoluble in the water of 



310 


PATHOGEN AND PATHOGENOSIS 


the blood or in water of any quality or temperature; 
hence, in the absence of extraneous assistance, the 
system must get rid of it, if at all, by forcing it 
through the mucous membranes and other tissues— 
a process which is almost certain to eventuate in great 
damage to the avenues of escape. If this cannot be 
effected in some way, the material in question will 
completely wreck its host, the living organism. 

So long as the body remains in a fairly vigorous 
condition it is able, as a rule, to rid Itself of the 
pathogen that is derived from the less refractory 
elements of the ingesta—gluten, albumin, legumin 
and amylum—which it does in some one of the fol¬ 
lowing ways: First, by converting it into bile (as 
set forth in the eighth chapter) and then discharg¬ 
ing it through hepatic outlets—the liver and bile 
ducts; second, by pushing it out of the circulating 
system by way of the urinary organs, as it does in 
albuminuria; third, by partially decomposing it and 
then ejecting it by way of the mucous surfaces and 
in the shape of a catarrhal transudate; fourth, by 
converting its carbon constituent into a carbohy¬ 
drate (glucose) and then eliminating it through the 
renal outlet in the shape of diabetic sugar; fifth, 
by first converting its carbon element into a hydro¬ 
carbon (fatty matter) and then storing it in out-of- 
the-way-places, as it were—that is, in the alveolar 
tissues, in the omentum, between the muscles and 
other structures, and beneath the skin—until the 
opportunity to get rid of it is afforded by abstinence, 
or a more active life, or the occurrence of a febrile 



A RUINOUS STRUGGLE 


311 


process. And be it carefully noted and remembered 
that the fat that disappears in the progress of fever 
is oxidized for the purpose, not of maintaining the 
vitality of the patient, as we have heretofore sup¬ 
posed, but of getting rid of this as well as other use¬ 
less materials. 

The performance of this unnatural task is essen¬ 
tially exhausting and, hence, in many instances the 
time eventually arrives when the expulsion of path¬ 
ogen falls far short of its production. Then begins 
some one of the more serious troubles to which the 
term chronic is applied. For, in the course of a 
lengthy sojourn within the body, pathogen becomes 
dehydrated, thickened, or consolidated—“denatur- 
ized” as Neumeister has very aptly expressed it. The 
system thus threatened instinctively endeavors to 
postpone the fatal moment and by pushing the of¬ 
fending material out of the systemic channels, the 
avenues of ejectment being, as a rule, some debili¬ 
tated structure, while the place of deposit is some 
region which may for any reason be unable to resist 
its incroachments. In one set of cases it is passed 
into the foredoomed structure in the shape of fibroid 
material, giving rise to fibroid degeneration, or a 
fibroid growth. In another set of cases it takes the 
shape of some one or more of those so-called cells 
that go to make up the various tumors with which we 
have to deal, including those malignant growths 
which have for centuries been puzzling, baffling and 
destroying the human race. 

Thus it is that the living organism endeavors to 



312 PATHOGEN AND PATHOGENOSIS 


defend itself against the encroachments of its dead¬ 
liest foe, the ubiquitous and strangely deceptive as 
well as surpassingly destructive, pathogen. It so 
happens, however, that in a large percentage of cases, 
both acute and chronic, nothing more is accomplished 
than a postponement of the impending fatality, and 
for the reason that the production of the material in 
question is so rapid and continuous that the vital 
energies become exhausted before success can be 
attained. 

THE PHAGOCYTIC DOCTRINE REVERSED. 

The leucocytes are formed from partially dehy¬ 
drated hemialbumose, and at the time when this ma¬ 
terial passes through the trabeculae of the spleen and 
lymph-nodes—structures which were, in my opinion, 
designed for the sole and more legitimate purpose of 
shaping nutrient matter into those discoids which are 
destined, I believe, to absorb oxygen and assume the 
functions and characteristics of haemocvtes, or red 
blood corpuscles, as above stated. When first formed 
the leucocytes are neither granular nor nucleated, and 
are known to science as “young cells,” “round cells” 
and “embryonal cells.” In the progress of time they 
begin to decay, and in some one of several ways: 
Sometimes they succumb to the external assaults of 
Pasteur’s “microbe generateur du pus,” masquerad¬ 
ing for a while as pus corpuscles and finally falling 
to pieces and disappearing as such; sometimes they 
yield to the internal assaults of other microorgan¬ 
isms with which they had come in contact and around 
which they had flown, as already stated and explained. 




DESTINY OF THE LEUCOCYTE 


313 


As this form of decay progresses a nucleus appears; 
to this other nuclei are soon added. As time ad¬ 
vances these foci increase in size as well as number, 
the constituents thereof becoming susceptible first 
to one dye and then to another, taking at one stage of 
the process the stain of eosin, in which case they are 
called eosinophilia; at another stage they take the 
color of methyl blue, and so on to the end of the list 
of the leucocyte stains. Sometimes they undergo 
fatty degeneration, in which case they are called mye¬ 
locytes. The myelocyte is simply a leucocyte in pro¬ 
cess of hydrocarbonization, the dangerous leucocyte 
being thus changed into a less dangerous thing— 
namely, fat. In short, there is no lack of evidence of 
the fact that the leucocyte or so-called white blood 
corpuscle, is a dead thing, that its destiny is dissolu¬ 
tion and that in its downward course it carries disease 
and destruction to its host, the living organism. 

The more exacting the examination the more evi¬ 
dent will be the fact that the current opinion concern¬ 
ing the action that takes place between the leucocytes 
and disease-germs, is the very reverse of the truth— 
that the disease germs are the destroyers, while the 
leucocytes are the things destroyed. 

The time has come, it appears, when we are bound 
to realize that the most cherished of all medical doc¬ 
trines are moribund—that both cellular histology 
and cellular pathology, grand and indisputable, as 
we have thus far supposed them to be, are in reality 
but little more than cellular mythologies, and that 
continued loyalty thereto would be treason to Nature, 
Humanity and Conscience. 



CHAPTER XV. 

THE RATIONALE OF PATHOGENOSIS. 

Showing How Pathogen Gives Rise to the Various 
and Apparently Diverse Morbid processes which 
are termed Diseases. 

An attempt will now be made to substantiate the 
foregoing claims by showing how pathogen produces 
that vast range of effects which we term diseases. 
And since brevity forms an important item in the 
scheme of this work, it will be necessary to confine 
attention almost entirely to the most intractable and 
problematic forms of disease. 

The correctness of the contention that pathoge- 
nosis—the blocking-up of the capillaries with patho¬ 
gen—is responsible for that decline of the vital 
energies and structures which occurs in the progress 
of disease in general and of pulmonary consumption 
in particular, will be brought into still greater promi¬ 
nence by a careful study of Fig. 21, 22, 23, 24 and 25. 

Fig. 21 represents a muscular fibril of the volun¬ 
tary variety which has been deprived of nutriment in 
consequence of obstruction of the attending capillary. 
The obstruction in question is depicted in black, 
which begins in front of the arrow at the bottom of 
the figure, and extends to the other end of the capil¬ 
lary. The emptiness of the cells is indicated by both 

314 


RATIONALE OF CONGESTION 


315 


the wrinkled condition and the increased length of 
the fibril. The latter effect is indicated by the further 

fact that the fibril 
extends above the 
line A B, and be¬ 
low the line C 
D, which may be 
called the lines 
of tonicity, since 
they correspond 
with the termini 
of Fig. 22, which 
represents a fibril 
and capillary as 
they are in 
health, the lumen 
of the one being 
patulous, while the cells of the other are distended 
with food. Whenever the will is brought to bear 
upon a fibril which is thus surcharged with nutrient 
matter, its component cells will be transversely ex¬ 
panded and its length reduced, as shown in Fig. 23, 
and for reasons set forth in the chapter on Myo- 
dynamics. But no such response can be obtained 
from a fibril which has been deprived of the energy¬ 
dispensing material called food, as shown in Fig. 21. 

The debility that is manifested by the involuntary 
muscles may be accounted for in the same way. For 
they are constructed and replenished on the same 
principles, the difference between the cells of the 
two kinds of muscles being a mere matter of form, 

















316 


RATIONALE OF PATHOGENOSIS 


those of the muscles of volition having a parallelo¬ 
gram as their outline, while those of the oppo¬ 
site variety are spindle-shaped, as the reader will 
remember. 

GASTROPTOSIS EXPLAINED. 

The phenomenon of gastric dilation has hereto¬ 
fore seemed to be utterly inexplicable. It has always 
been evident that it depends upon the debility of the 



f ' 9- 24 F ig. 25. 


gastric muscles, but both the cause of the debility and 
the manner of its expression have heretofore been 
beyond comprehension. 

The time has arrived, however, when both muscu¬ 
lar debility and its resultant, gastric dilation, may be 
explained, as a careful examination of Pigs. 24 and 
25 in the light of the foregoing theory of nutrition 
will show. The former figure represents a normal 
stomach, the cells of which have been duly replen¬ 
ished, and are therefore possessed of considerable 
plumpness, while the latter represents a stomach, 



TUMEFACTION EXPLAINED 


317 


some of the cells of which have been deprived of their 
just quota of nutriment, and have therefore become 
narrower and longer than those of the former figure. 
The cells of the inferior portion of the stomach suf¬ 
fer more than the rest, and for the obvious reason 
that the weight of the ingesta (food) bears directly 
and continuously upon them, the result being a cor¬ 
responding distention of the cell walls, a change in the 
gastric elements that necessitates just such a change 
in the walls of the viscus as the cut shows. It will 



also be seen that a partial or complete emptiness of 
the cells of any other organ of similar construction, 
the auricles of the heart, for example, will be attended 
with similar results. Prolapsus uteri, gastroptosis, 
nephroptosis, or floating kidney, and the like, are 
produced in the same way. 

Pigs. 26, 27, 28 and 29 are intended to show that 

















318 


RATIONALE OF PATHOGENOSIS 


congestion may be produced by the same kind of ma¬ 
terial that defeats nutrition. Pig. 26 represents a 
capillary plexus which is perfectly patulous, or un¬ 
obstructed, a fact which is indicated by the passing 
of the arrows from the arteriole through the capillary 
net-work and into the venule. Fig. 27 represents a 
capillary system which has become completely ob¬ 
structed, a fact which is indicated by both the granu¬ 
lar areas in the capillaries and the fact that the 
arrows have not been allowed to reach the efferent 
vessel, or venule. This is the primary lesion in nearly 
every disease that can be named, and may therefore 
be called incipient congestion. Fig. 28 is intended 
to represent the secondary result of capillary ob¬ 
struction—namely, fully developed congestion. The 
attentive reader will readily perceive: first, that 
whenever the capillaries become occluded, as shown 
in Fig. 27, their walls will be distended as shown in 
Fig. 28, and for the reason that the heart forces the 
blood against the obstruction with sufficient energy 
to produce this effect; second, that this state of things 
will be maintained so long as the obstruction exists, 
and for the reason that the valves of the arterial sys¬ 
tem will prevent the blood from receding; third, that 
whenever the blood pressure becomes great some of 
the materials thus imprisoned in the capillaries will 
be forced through the walls thereof and into the inter¬ 
stitial spaces, as shown by the arrows in Fig. 29. 

For the sake of emphasis be it repeated that path¬ 
ogen is a very viscid substance and serves, therefore, 
to interfere with vital operations in general, which it 




MORBID GROWTHS EXPLAINED 


319 


does in many ways, among which are the following: 
first, by clogging the glands, and capillaries and es¬ 
caping into the interstitial spaces, thus producing 
congestion, irritation, inflammation, tissue-starva¬ 
tion and most if not all the wreckage that these con¬ 
ditions naturally imply; second, by undergoing 
dehydration, or inspissation, and assuming the shape 
and properties of some one or all of the various al¬ 
buminoid particles that we see in the progress of 
disease—some floating in the blood stream—namely, 
the so-called “giant cells” and the like; some em¬ 
bedded in the interstitial spaces in the shape and 
density of those matchless foes of civilized life that 
are known to science as tubercles; some massed to¬ 
gether in the areolar tissues and other parts of the 
body, forming the greater part of the various morbid 
growths, both benign and malignant, with which we 
have to deal; some undergoing decomposition within 
the systemic channels and interstitial spaces, produc¬ 
ing toxic substances and sedimentary materials of 
various kinds and degrees of virulence. 

A SERIOUS MISTAKE. 

Pathologists, physiologists and haemotologists in 
general have thus far regarded serum albumen as an 
essential element of the blood, when it is in reality far 
worse than useless, being nothing more nor less than 
the non-usable portion of the ingesta—materials 
which could not under existing circumstances be re¬ 
duced to peptone. 

I would respectfully submit that many valuable 



320 


RATIONALE OF PATHOGENOSIS 


suggestions may be had by examining the facts and 
opinions set forth in works on the blood in the light 
of these propositions. Reference is made, the more 
especially, to such facts and observations as the fol¬ 
lowing, which are recorded in Ewing’s “Clinical 
Pathology of the Blood”: 

“In infectious diseases the albumens are moder¬ 
ately reduced, even when the number of red cells 
remains normal (typhoid fever). 

“It was first observed by Werigo that the inocu¬ 
lation of animals with bacterial cultures is followed 
within five or ten minutes by a pronounced diminu¬ 
tion of circulating leucocytes, by the deposit of the 
bacteria in the capillaries of the lungs, liver and 
other viscera, and by their complete disappearance 
from the blood.”—Page 118. 

“During the subsidence of acute leucocytosis the 
neutrophile are sometimes replaced by a considerable 
proportion of eosinophile cells, as in pneumonia, sep¬ 
tic processes, etc. The significance of this phenome¬ 
non is entirely unknown, but it has been shown to be 
of favorable import.”—Page 119. 

‘ ‘ The quality of the food has sometimes a distinct 
effect on the grade of leucocytosis. Highly albumi¬ 
nous meats, readily digested and absorbed in consid¬ 
erable quantity, have much more influence upon leu¬ 
cocytes than a meal of vegetables and fats.”—Page 
123. 

“It is now apparent that leucocytosis represents ' 
Nature’s attempt to rid the blood and the system by 
means of leucocytes and their products, of the bac¬ 
terial and toxic causes of disease.”—Page 122. By 
permission of the publishers, Lea Bros. & Co., New 
York. 



IMPORTANT EXPLANATIONS 


321 


By viewing these things in the manner I have al¬ 
ready suggested the reader will scarcely fail to per¬ 
ceive : 1. That the facts set forth in the first quota¬ 
tion go to show that the albumin we find in the blood 
is abnormal and that it is the function of infective 
organisms to reduce it to the inorganic state so that 
it may be the more readily disposed of, as above sug¬ 
gested. 2. That the facts set forth in the second 
quotation mean, that the bacteria first coagulate and 
then decompose the leucocytes, and that when they 
(the bacteria) disappear it is because they have com¬ 
pleted their work of ridding the system of its dead¬ 
liest foe, coagulable albumin. 3. That the “ phe¬ 
nomenon’ ’ referred to in the third item as of un¬ 
known significance, means that the leucocytes are 
passing into decay and that their nature is thus 
changed to such an extent that they may be stained 
by the aniline dyes. 4. That the fact referred to 
in the fourth quotation means that “highly albumi¬ 
nous meats’’ are not as digestible as they are supposed 
to be—that they are only partially digested, and that 
this imperfectly elaborated material gives rise to 
congestion and the various so-called cells that we 
see in the progress of disease. 5. That the opinion 
expressed in the fifth quotation is erroneous,—that 
the truth lies in the opposite direction and may be 
stated in paraphrastic phrase by saying, bacterial in¬ 
fection, painful though it be, eventuates in the re¬ 
moval of the surplus of albumin on which leucocyto- 
sis depends. 

There are abundant reasons, absurd as it may at 



322 


RATIONALE OF PATHOGENOSIS 


first appear, for the conclusion that infection is one 
of Nature’s methods of relieving the living organism 
of any non-usable organic matter that may find its 
way into the blood and that the category of the non- 
usable includes all coagulable material from serum 
albumin on up to the so-called primordial animal 
cells, or white blood corpuscles. 

THE PHENOMENON OF INFECTION. 

It so happens, however, that nearly every such 
process is as dangerous as it is necessary. For while 
it is true that the system must be relieved of its 
burden of obstructing material, it is also true that 
the introduction of infective organisms into a body 
which is carrying a large amount of pathogen of any 
kind; whether plastic or cell-like, has substantially 
the same effect that a spark has upon the shavings 
that a carpenter has left in the house that he has 
constructed—namely, the destruction of the shavings 
and perchance of the house as well. That is to say, 
the conflagration that is started within the body by 
infective organisms, though benevolent in its pur¬ 
pose, may prove destructive to a large amount of 
tissue, and even to life itself. Not, however, because 
these organisms are essentially inimical to vital in¬ 
terests, as we have heretofore supposed, but because 
the amount of the material (pathogen) to be decom¬ 
posed and removed is so great and the tissues in 
which it is located have been so seriously devitalized 
in consequence of its interference with nutrition, that 
these structures are unable to offer sufficient resist- 



IMPORTANT INTERROGATIONS 


323 


ance, and must therefore become involved in the dis¬ 
integrating process—the body incidentally becoming 
the victim of the very agencies which were ordained 
and set in motion for the sole purpose of its 
preservation. 

The correctness of this proposition will be seen 
by reference to the facts, arguments and experiments 
set forth in the following chapter. 

For the sake of much needed emphasis I repeat: 

What is the meaning of the well recognized fact 
that “mechanical obstruction” of the blood vessels is 
the essential difficulty in congestion, if not that the 
ever-present leucocyte is the mechanical obstruent 
and hence the active cause of this, the most funda¬ 
mental of all lesions ? 

Is it not far more reasonable to suppose that the 
leucocytes with which inflamed areas are crowded 
are responsible for this state of things, than to infer, 
as we thus far have done, that they came hither for 
the purpose of repairing the damages ? 

When we see the leucocyte slip through the walls 
of the blood vessels after the manner of the passage 
of a bit of cloth through a knot hole, as we often do, 
why shall we not conclude that it is not a friend on 
benevolence bent, as we have supposed, but a danger¬ 
ous intruder upon the sanctity of the circulating sys¬ 
tem, and has for this reason been expelled there¬ 
from? And since the leucocyte is composed of the 
same kind of material that enters into the composi¬ 
tion of the so-called “cells” that are found in the 



324 


RATIONALE OF PATHOGENOSIS 


various morbid growths, why may we not conclude 
that those leucocytes which have been expelled, as 
above explained, from the vascular system will as¬ 
semble in some practically defenceless region and be 
blended into larger “cells’’ and these in turn into a 
tumor, or into a cancerous growth, as the writer 
contends ? 

Is it not far more reasonable to suppose that the 
leucocytes that we see in the margins of wounds are 
being pushed out of the circulation by the way of 
the breach, than to infer that they were sent hither 
for the purpose of repairing it, as we always have 
done? 

In short, what does disease mean, if not that the 
living organism is thus engaged in a life or death 
struggle which has for its principal object the dis- 
lodgment, annihilation, or expulsion of that which 
has now been shown to be more dreadful than the 
blighting blossoms and death-dealing effluvium of 
the upas-tree ? 

What does the fact of more than sixty years of a 
worse than fruitless study of the amoeba and the 
leucocyte mean if not that Nature, the greatest of all 
illusionists, has been deceiving the very elect of the 
medical and biological worlds by performing in their 
presence the eminently deceptive feat of causing par¬ 
ticles of decaying organic matter to simulate the 
phenomena of life with marvelous accuracy? 

To ask these questions is but to answer them, it 
would seem. 



MISLEADING INFLUENCES 


325 


It has now been shown that hemialbumose (path¬ 
ogen) is in its essence a “foreign body”; that it is 
transformed into other and still more hurtful foreign 
bodies—namely, leucocytes; that these so-called cells 
are responsible for inflammation and its multifarious 
consequences; that infective germs first coagulate 
and then decompose these intruders upon the sanctity 
of the circulating system and that the resulting debris 
is productive of both toxaemia, and sedimentation. 

Under the misleading influence of the unwar¬ 
ranted part of the cell-theory our authorities have 
fallen into the error of attributing the decline of the 
body to the decay of the leucocytes when the change 
thus wrought is salutary, and in many cases the only 
thing which will save it (the body) from destruction. 

In the Introduction reference was made to the 
fact that the medical profession, bedazzled by the 
apparently trustworthy corruscations of the Germ 
Theory of Disease, not only settled down to the con¬ 
clusion that the infectious diseases might he eradi¬ 
cated by the use of “germicides,” but ventured the 
prediction that the “Great White Plague,” the grav¬ 
est of all infectious diseases, would in the not distant 
future be practically, if not completely “stamp d 
out.” Reference was, in the next place, made to the 
historic fact that these glowing expectations were not 
so much as fairly realized, and that we were com¬ 
pelled by a vast concatenation of baffling experiences 
to realize and admit that infection depends upon 
some preexisting condition, which has been variously 
termed, the “predisposition,” the “susceptibility,” a 



326 


RATIONALE OF PATHOGENOSIS 


4 ‘lowered vitality” and a “suitable soil.” Attention 
was then called, it will be remembered, to the impor¬ 
tant and practically unavoidable implications: First, 
that the infectious diseases depend, to say the least, 
upon two causes—the germs and the soil upon which 
the propagation thereof confessedly depends; second, 
that this predisponent must in all reason be regarded 
as the greater of the two; third, that the next step in 
the pathway of medical progression must have for its 
object a definite knowledge of this more powerful 
pathogenic agent. 

A GOOD INTENTION WITH BAD EFFECT. 

In view of the fact that the great white plague is 
constantly advancing upon the strongholds of vital¬ 
ity, it must be admitted that the campaign that has 
been waged against his majesty the Tubercle Bacillus 
has not only failed to arrest, but actually accelerated 
his progress. And in view of the equally well-known 
fact that suggestion is a power of great moment, 
and for evil as well as good, it is an easy matter to 
see that the increasing occurrence of pulmonary 
consumption is justly attributable to bad suggestion, 
the effect of the agitation being a dread of the germs 
which is so pronounced that it has been termed 
“bacteriophobia.” To convince any person, no mat¬ 
ter how resolute or courageous he may be, that his 
vital organs are infested with germs which multiply 
at a prodigious rate and are essentially death-dealing 
in their nature and operations, is but to send him 
post haste to the grave. While the spirit of the move- 



BASIS OF A GREAT REVOLUTION 


'Z'l'l 


ment in* question may be very commendable, the 
effect of such publicity as those in charge have seen 
fit to give it is both positively and obviously dis¬ 
astrous. And sad to say, this bad suggestion is vastly 
intensified in its mischievous possibilities by two per¬ 
fectly evident facts: First, the fact that tuberculosis 
has steadily increased in the very face of the efforts 
put forth for its curtailment; second, the fact that 
such prolific, ubiquitous and invisible things as in¬ 
fective organisms cannot be avoided. I would re¬ 
spectfully submit that the best way to combat the 
tubercle bacillus is to lay aside all reference to the 
germs and adopt measures which are capable of pre¬ 
venting and eliminating the soil on which the propa¬ 
gation of infective germs depends—namely, path¬ 
ogen. Make known the fact that pathogen is the 
greater of the two causes on which disease depends, 
and that this is the thing to be dreaded, and a mighty 
revolution in human health will be the result. 

THE NEW DOCTRINE OF INFECTION. 

Moreover, I feel able to prove on both rational and 
experimental lines that the early decline and un¬ 
timely destruction of the human body is largely at¬ 
tributable to the mistake of consuming daily some 
one or more of several articles which have for cen¬ 
turies been regarded as alimentary essentials, when 
they are in reality not only utterly useless, but the 
principal factors, direct and indirect, in the destruc¬ 
tion of the human body—namely, fibrous tissue and 
fatty matter. 

The blunder here referred to, together with that 



328 


RATIONALE OF PATHOGENOSIS 


which was set afoot by the brilliant but erratic Syl¬ 
vester Graham—namely, the ‘'graham bread’’ fal¬ 
lacy, and which led to the still worse habit of using 
“whole wheat bread,” has served, not to maintain 
the vital energies and structures, as plausible theories 
has led the world to expect, but to fill the channels of 
life with the material on which the propagation of 
infective organisms and other troubles depend. I do 
not hesitate to affirm, as I now do, that the blunders 
here referred to are responsible for that astounding 
increase of disease which has taken place in the last 
fifty years. That is to say, in attempting to rebuild 
wasted tissues on the lines indicated by the existing 
theories, the great majority of the people have con¬ 
sumed materials which are practically indigestible, 
and, per consequence, their circulation is surcharged 
with that non-usable material which lies at the bottom 
of all sorts of morbid conditions, from congestion and 
infection on up to the gravest known to human his¬ 
tory, as already stated and explained. 

Believing that there is a call for line upon line and 
precept upon precept, attention is again called to the 
following facts, the significance of which has evident¬ 
ly escaped the great leaders of the domains of biology, 
physiology and therapeutics: 

1. That in health the white blood corpuscle is prac¬ 
tically non-existent, there being on the average only 
one white to about one thousand red corpuscles. 

2. That in disease the white corpuscles are quite 
numerous to begin with and, as a rule, increase in 
exact ratio to the increase of the morbid process, the 



A SIGNIFICANT SUMMARY 


329 


final result in many cases being a preponderance of 
these cell-like particles. 

3. That all congested areas, all morbid growths 
and all slow-healing wounds are crowded with color¬ 
less corpuscles of various kinds, from the supposedly 
normal leucocytes on up to the confessedly malignant 
‘‘cancer cells.’’ 

4. That those changes that take place in the white 
corpuscles and are variously termed “fission,” “gem¬ 
mation” and “vital duplication” are absolutely 
irregular, while the supposedly identical changes that 
take place in the ova of birds and animals are per¬ 
fectly regular and symmetrical. 

5. That the “protoplasm” of the blood is very 
scant in health; that it is greatly increased in disease 
and that it becomes more and more abundant as the 
morbid process increases. 

6. That the blood of the aged is heavily laden with 
“protoplasm” and that, in the progress of senility it 
becomes “congealed,” as Professor H. W. Wiley has 
aptly expressed it. 

It is a very singular not to say unaccountable cir¬ 
cumstance that no authority has attempted any ex¬ 
planation of the presence of vast numbers of leu¬ 
cocytes in infected areas, other than the hypothesis 
advanced by Metchnikoff, that they are “phagocytes” 
and that they assemble there for the purpose of de¬ 
vouring the disease-germs—a contention which has 
not only led its illustrious author into the necessity 
of advancing the supplementary and still more un- 



330 


RATIONALE OF PATHOGENOSIS 


satisfactory hypothesis that under certain circum¬ 
stances they (the leucocytes) turn against and de¬ 
stroy their host—the living organism—but has also 
led a distinguished English authority (Wright) to 
assert that they (the leucocytes) refuse, now and 
then, to perform their phagocytic duties and will not 
resume the work until the “opsonic index’’ has been 
rectified, or words to that effect. 

How much more simple and consistent is the prop¬ 
osition advanced in the preceding pages, that the leu¬ 
cocytes are particles of imperfectly elaborated or¬ 
ganic matter and that in what appears to be a phago¬ 
cytic contest, they (the leucocytes) are not the de¬ 
stroyers, but the destroyed! 

For these and other reasons too numerous to men¬ 
tion, I would respectfully submit that it was a very 
grave mistake to suppose that the leucocyte belongs 
in that grand and incontestable generalization which 
asserts that, “ Every living organism is essentially an 
aggregation of cells.” Verily, the illustrious Vir¬ 
chow was right in asserting, as he did, that, “ Every 
animal is a sum of vital entities,” but wrong in sup¬ 
posing and teaching, as he did, that the leucocytes 
belong in the list of such entities. 

THE CAUSA VIVA AND THE CAUSA VERA. 

The more important of the conclusions at which I 
have arrived regarding the establishment of morbid 
conditions are: 

1. That all morbid processes, save those which are 
produced by traumatic agencies or by poisons in- 



THE CAUSA VERA 


331 


troduced from external sources, are due to one or the 
other or both of two classes of causes, the one being 
the predisponent, while the other is the excitant, and 
that the former is to be considered the greater of the 
two, the evidence of its superiority residing in the 
fact that it takes possession of the body in advance 
of the germ and lowers the vitality to such an extent 
that resistance to germ action is practically im¬ 
possible. 

2. That the production of the predisponent, or 
great underlying cause, now pointed out and de¬ 
nominated pathogen, is attributable to some one or 
more of several blunders, namely, first, the use as 
food of the articles referred to in the preceding para¬ 
graphs as being largely responsible for the produc¬ 
tion of pathogen; second, the habit of eating on the 
“rapid fire” principle, comprehending both imper¬ 
fect mastication and excessive alimentation; third, 
the consumption of articles which are largely com¬ 
posed of lignin, cellulose and fibrous tissue—ma¬ 
terials which are almost if not entirely beyond the 
digestive capacity of human beings in general, and 
of the younger and frailer specimens in particular. 

3. That by reason of the mistakes now enumer¬ 
ated the human body becomes surcharged with that 
partially elaborated and therefore non-usable ma¬ 
terial which has been designated as pathogen, and 
which is to be regarded as the Active Cause of nearly 
every disease that can be named, as before stated. 

4. That the infective germ is the tertium quid, or 
third agent, on which the oxidation of the unstable 



332 


RATIONALE OF PATHOGENOSIS 


forms of organic matter partly depends; that with 
this purpose in view it was ordained in the very be¬ 
ginning, when the foundations of Animated Nature 
were laid, that the spores from which bacterial or¬ 
ganisms are developed shall be both abundantly 
present in the atmosphere and sufficiently minute to 
penetrate with ease the finest tissues of any living 
organism; that they shall pass into the body under all 
circumstances which are at all favorable to life; that 
in so doing they shall remain inert, or developed, 
until the avenues of life are invaded by that imper¬ 
fectly elaborated material called pathogen—this be¬ 
ing the pabulum or soil on which the propagation of 
such depends—and that they shall then spring into 
life and enter upon the work of bringing oxygen 
into combination with the perishable elements of the 
non-usable materials in question, thus producing 
those deleterious substances which are found in the 
progress of infective diseases, and which are various¬ 
ly termed toxines, ptomaines and putrefactive 
alkaloids; that germ action has the incidental effect of 
imparting color, type or distinctive character to the 
morbid process, the bacillus diphtheriae, imparting 
the diphtheritic type; the bacillus typhi abdominalis, 
the characteristics of typhoid fever; the bacillus 
scarlatinae, that of scarlet fever; the micrococcus 
pyogenes aureus, the suppurating type; the plasmo- 
dium malariae, the malarial type, and so on, to end 
of the category of infective organisms. 

5. That immunity from any disease, infectious or 
non-infectious, depends upon the absence or elimina- 



THE THING TO BE DREADED 


333 


tion of pathogen—that natural immunity is due to 
the absence of pathogen, and that acquired immunity 
is the result of the liquefaction and discharge of path¬ 
ogen; in short, pathogen—the rubish on which the 
disease primarily depends—is burnt out by the 
torches of infection, vaccination, and serum injection 
and other forms of “Animal Therapy,” the result be¬ 
ing immunity or recovery, as the case may be. 

If these things be true—and they certainly seem to 
b e —then it follows that the thing to be the more 
esspecially held in terrorem is not the excitant, but 
the predisponent; not the causa viva, but the causa 
vera; not the lesser, but the greater of the two causes 
on which the disease depends—namely, pathogen; for 
it must in all reason be admitted that pathogen dem¬ 
onstrates its superiority by taking possession of the 
body in advance of the germ and so depressing the 
vitality that resistance to germ action is impossible. 
While it is true that the germ stirs up a vast amount 
of trouble, it must be admitted that the greatest dan¬ 
ger lies in the thing that begins by producing conges¬ 
tion and catarrhal matter and winds up all too fre¬ 
quently with the formation of such vile things as 
fibroid' material, hyaline bodies, miliary tubercles and 
cancer cells. 

Unreasonable as it may seem, it is perfectly safe 
to say that in consequence of their want of knowledge 
of the vitomotive-power and its antecedents, material 
and functional, our leaders of the long ago made the 
very natural, not to say unavoidable mistake of re¬ 
garding the leucocyte or white blood corpuscle, as a 



334 RATIONALE OF PATHOGENOSIS 


living cell and the builder and defender of the vital 
structures, when it is in reality a mortuus corpuscu- 
lum, or dead thing, floating, festering and rotting in 
the midst of the life-stream, and not only scattering 
its death-dealing detritus—the variously termed, 
toxines, ptomaines and putrefactive alkoloids—far 
and wide as it goes, but clogging this vessel and that, 
and hampering this organ and that with its slimy 
corporosity as well. 

For the sake of emphasis, I repeat that in conse¬ 
quence of more than two decades of practically in¬ 
cessant study, research and experimentation, I have 
arrived at the conclusion that that vile product of 
abortive digestion now designated as pathogen is re¬ 
sponsible for all grades of morbid phenomena from 
the simplest process of the kind on up to the gravest 
that can be named. That is to say, I have demon¬ 
strated to my satisfaction: 

1. That by interfering with the fundamental pro¬ 
cesses of digestion, absorption, circulation, nutrition 
and elimination pathogen causes the hair to blanch, 
the teeth to decay, the skin to shrink, the nails to 
curve (as in consumption) the eyes to grow dim, the 
hearing to become dull, the respiratory organs to be¬ 
come weak, the gastric apparatus to dilate, the peptic 
glands to fail, the alimentary tract to lose its rhyth¬ 
mic contractions and expansions, or peristalic action, 
the liver and kidneys to become torpid, the auricles 
of the heart to dilate, the cardiac valves to grow lax 
and leaky, the stomach, uterus, rectum and kidneys 
to prolapse, the lymplatic vessels to let slip their con- 




A NEW PATHOLOGIC APHORISM 


335 


tents (as in edema), the veins to expand into varices 
and the arteries into aneurisms, the bones to become 
either soft or brittle, the ambition to fade, the nerves 
to perish, the synovial fluid to become scant, the 
muscles to become atrophied and debilitated, the in¬ 
tellect to fade and the vital spark to find extinguish¬ 
ment in death. 

2. That if it were not for the presence in the 
system of that matchless inhibitor of nutrition, and 
elimination; that vile metastatic; that most fertile 
progenitor of toxines, tubercles and cancer cells; 
that decomposing, pain-producing, and poison¬ 
generating “foreign body” which has now been 
pointed out and denominated pathogen, the Human 
Race would be immune not only to the infections and 
contagiums in general, but to those vastly more seri¬ 
ous disorders which are known to science as Pyrexia, 
Paralysis, Fibrosis, Sclerosis, Cirrhosis, Tubercu¬ 
losis and Carcinosis—a pathologic concept which 
finds appropriate expression in the aphorism: 

No indigestion, no congestion; no congestion, no 
inflammation; no obstruction, no tissue-starvation; 
no pabulum, no infection. Or, to put it still more 
briefly, no pathogen, no morbid action. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

THE GENESIS OF PATHOGEN. 

In the preceding chapter it was shown in general 
terms and with what is believed to be a reasonable 
degree of perspicuity, that “serum albumin” and its 
progeny, the various colorless corpuscles that are 
found in the blood, are not only useless, but a thou¬ 
sand times worse than useless, spreading debility, 
disease and death broadcast in all civilized lands, by 
affording a 4 ‘suitable soil” for the propagation of 
infective organisms, by interfering in many ways 
with vital operations in general and by undergoing 
decay within the precincts of vitality, the end pro¬ 
ducts thereof being the various “toxines,” “ pto¬ 
maines” and “putrefactive alkaloids” that are found 
in the progress of disease. In other words, it was 
affirmed and argued at some length that the Human 
Body is disabled and finally wrecked in consequence 
of the presence in its systemic channels of a sub¬ 
stance which assumes many forms and is so eminently 
antagonistic to vital operations in general, that it 
was deemed proper to coin for it the new and fairly 
descriptive name of, pathogen. 

The generalization thus presented in explanation 
of morbid phenomena, though undeniably felicitous 
in its interpretations, would in all probability fail 
of its purpose in the absence of a satisfactory showing 

336 


IMPORTANT AFFIRMATIONS 


337 


regarding the substances from which pathogen is pro¬ 
duced, and the way in which it is moulded into the 
so-called white blood corpuscles, and the like. For 
the time has come when every new doctrine must run 
the gauntlet of a most exacting, not to say unduly 
severe criticism, and come out all the better for that 
experience, or be rejected. 

With the view of meeting this obviously necessary 
requirement and of settling, once for all, the most 
momentous problem of the world’s history, I would 
respectfully, earnestly and fearlessly submit the 
following affirmations: 

1. That Pathogen is nothing more nor less than 
partially digested organic matter—that portion of 
the ingesta which had been sufficiently liquefied to 
enable it to find its way into the circulating system, 
but not enough so to enable it to pass through the 
infinitely finer tissues of which the walls of the nutri¬ 
tive cells of the living organism are composed; in 
other words, pathogen is derived from those constitu¬ 
ents of the ingesta that the digestive apparatus can¬ 
not for any reason reduce to the perfectly dialyzable 
and non-coagulable state. In short, pathogen is ma¬ 
terial which has not been reduced to peptone . 

2. That pathogen and its effects antedate medi¬ 
cal history; that all medical endeavor, practically 
speaking, has been a contest w T ith its effects, the va¬ 
rious morbid processes, and that in every case its 
production has been due, as a rule, to gastronomic 
errors and indiscretions, comprehending: First, the 
ingestion of improper articles; second, excessive ali- 




338 


THE GENESIS OF PATHOGEN 


mentation, or over-eating; third, eating on the ‘ 6 rapid 
fire” principle; fourth, imperfect mastication; fifth, 
worry, anxiety, despair. 

3. That the greatest and most disastrous of all 
gastronomic indiscretions, the effect of which is seen 
in that fearful increase of disease to which the sta¬ 
tistics of the last half-century refers, is that which 
is involved in the long existent exploitation, personal, 
professional and commercial, of the current theories 
regarding the requirements of life—theories which 
are so eminently authoritative and so bewitchingly 
plausible, that neither the medical profession nor the 
general public has so much as suspected the fact that 
some of them are utterly fallacious, while the rest 
are, to say the least, nothing more than half-truths— 
facts which are essentially prophetic of the very 
disasters that the world has experienced. 

4. That the blunder just referred to as chiefly 
responsible for the appalling increase of disease 
disclosed by the Bureau of Statistics, consists in the 
concerted attempt to rebuild “wasted tissues” when 
and where there is practically no demand for such a 
thing, as the principles set forth in the chapter on 
Myo-Mechanics and Myo-Dynamics go to show, in¬ 
volving the extensive and indiscriminate use of sub¬ 
stances which are best adapted—according to the 
theories in question—to the work of tissue-building — 
namely, the flesh of fishes, fowls and animals, and 
the various crude cereal preparations, from “ whole¬ 
wheat” to “rolled oats,” and the like—articles which 
contain considerable percentages of materials which 



IMPORTANT AFFIRMATIONS 


339 


are almost if not entirely beyond the digestive ca¬ 
pacity of even the most healthy human stomach— 
namely, the fibrous elements of the flesh-foods and 
the cortical portion, or cellulose, of the various grains 
which are used in their entirety. These fibrous and 
cortical materials are so densely organized that the 
most vigorous human stomach can do little more, 
practically speaking, than partially digest them. And 
the same is true of the starchy element of the cereals, 
when ingested in the shape of hastily made and there¬ 
fore half-cooked mushes and pancakes. In short, the 
indiscriminate use of substances containing fibrous 
tissue, cellulose, and imperfectly cooked starch gran¬ 
ules is chiefly responsible for the production of 
pathogen and this in turn for the appalling increase 
of disease which has occurred in the last fifty years. 

5. That Pathogen is in an important sense repro¬ 
ductive—producing more pathogen by producing 
conditions which make it impossible for the stomach 
to properly digest very much of even the most di¬ 
gestible foods, the balance of the ingesta, being only 
partially digested, augments the original stock of 
the offending material. That is to say, Pathogen 
makes the production of more pathogen inevitable 
by blocking the gastric follicles and capillaries, thus 
producing gastric congestion and its monstrous train 
of evils—namely, tumefaction, irritation, inflamma¬ 
tion, tissue-starvation, catarrhal transudation (es¬ 
caping pathogen), gastric dilation, gastroptosis, and, 
perchance, that arch-destroyer of the gastric appa¬ 
ratus, carcinoma, the so-called cells of which are 




340 


THE GENESIS OF PATHOGEN 


nothing more nor less than particles of inspissated 
pathogen, as elsewhere stated. 

6. That after the gastric apparatus has become 
the seat of catarrhal inflammation (chronic gastritis), 
as above explained, it is unable to properly digest 
articles which the healthy stomach can handle with 
comparative ease—namely, gluten, albumin, the 
coarser vegetables and the non-fibrous parts of flesh. 
Here, then, is another reason for the wondrous prev¬ 
alence of diseases dependent upon pathogen, the best 
of foods becoming not only practically useless, but a 
constant menace to continued existence. 

7. That the portion of pathogen which is derived 
from such things as cellulose and fibrous tissue is 
essentially insoluble in the aqueous element of the 
blood or in water of any quality or temperature and 
that to this fact is chiefly due the persistency, or 
chronicity, of many forms of disease, the so-called 
incurable disorders, for example. By reason of the 
essential insolubility of this form of pathogen the 
devising of the measures requisite for its liquefica- 
tion and elimination has cost me twenty years of 
patient research and experimentation, and while 
much headway has been made in that direction, as 
shown by twelve years of very satisfactory results, 
comprehending the cure of a large percentage of 
several of the so-called incurable diseases, the height 
of my ambition in the direction of therapeutic at¬ 
tainment has not as yet been reached. 

8. That persons afflicted with gastritis and gastric 
catarrh, the conditions on which the production of 



PROSPECTIVE DISCOVERIES 


341 


pathogen partly depends, are, as a rule, wholly un¬ 
conscious of the fact that the digestion is below par, 
and for several reasons: First, the “appetite is 
good, ’’ sometimes too good, being in reality a morbid 
one; second, there is little or no disturbance in the 
stomach, creating the impression that the digestion 
is good when such is not the case—a fact which finds 
logical explanation in the proposition that the diges¬ 
tive process is carried far enough to prevent fermen¬ 
tation, but not far enough to constitute complete 
digestion. The person thus afflicted labors under 
the false impression that he is in perfect health until 
paralysis, or cardiac paresis (heart-failure), or cer- 
rebral hemorrhage, or some other dread disorder 
reveals the fact that his “good appetite’* was not 
good, and that the food that “agreed with him,” had 
not in reality done so. 

OTHER DISCOVERIES IN PROSPECT. 

Furthermore, my investigations have convinced 
me that the increased production of pathogen to 
which the increase of disease refers, depends to a 
considerable extent upon other dietetic errors which 
are founded upon and fostered by those theories 
which were adopted in the long ago as the funda¬ 
mental postulates of medical science. That is to say, 
a vast amount of study together with the best reason¬ 
ing of which I am at all capable, have resulted in the 
almost complete conviction that the production of 
pathogen is attributable not alone to gormandizing, 
unutterably bad as this habit certainly is, but for the 



342 


THE GENESIS OF PATHOGEN 


most part to bad combinations, comprehending the 
simultaneous ingestion of a variety of substances 
some of which are authoritatively set forth as dietetic 
essentials when they are in reality vastly worse than 
useless, as the physical and mental degeneracy into 
which the world has drifted and is still drifting, cer¬ 
tainly implies. 

The people of this country are consuming the 
substances here referred to at the rate of billions 
of pounds per annum, and without the silghtest 
suspicion of the fact, if it be a fact, as I appre¬ 
hend, that they are actually, though indirectly, re¬ 
sponsible for the widespread prevalence of path¬ 
ogen and its effects, comprehending the practically 
universal reign of disease and death. In other 
words, I see as clearly as an apparently logical 
course of reasoning can make it, that a considerable 
number of articles which are universally regarded as 
dietetic essentials are in reality not only useless 
but essentially destructive to the health and life of 
the people. 

i The articles in question could be described in a 
single paragraph of moderate extent, but there are 
good reasons for the assumption that to do so without 
first demonstrating the correctness of my views by 
means of adequate experimentation, would be a very 
unwise, not to say, reprehensible procedure. Be¬ 
cause of the well-known fact that human reasoning is 
liable to go wide of the mark, the world in general and 
men of science in particular are exceedingly conserva¬ 
tive, refusing, as a rule, to accept any hypothesis, be 




ERRONEOUS STANDARDS 


343 


it ever so plausible, until it has withstood the crucial 
test of thoroughgoing and incontestible experimenta¬ 
tion. In other words, my disinclination to name 
those articles that I conceive to be chiefly responsible 
for the appalling prevalence of disease, finds at 
least a measure of justification in the conservatism 
for which the great leaders of thought are noted. 

If there be any truth in the new theories regarding 
life and its requirements that I have advanced—and 
there certainly is—then it follows that the existing 
methods of determining food values are unreliable 
and for two reasons: First, nitrogen is in no wise 
essential to nutrition; second, the calory is not a 
dependable criterion, since a large part of the heat 
produced by the incinerating process is justly at¬ 
tributable to the cruder elements of the ingesta—ma¬ 
terials which are indigestible, and, hence, non-usable. 

Owing to the reigning misconceptions regarding 
nutrition and its requirements the market is flooded 
with food preparations which are set forth as highly 
appropriate for those who are in the toils of the 
more serious forms of disease, when it is a perfectly 
demonstrable fact that everything of the kind is de¬ 
cidedly inappropriate and deceptive. Patients who 
depend upon such seem for a time to be greatly bene¬ 
fited. They gain in weight, seem stronger, look better 
and feel better. But eventually the situation is com¬ 
pletely reversed, the patient going down with some 
so-called intercurrent disorder—a fact which in¬ 
volves the important but hitherto unrecognized im¬ 
plication, that the patient was in reality being 



344 


THE GENESIS OF PATHOGEN 


stuffed, stimulated and starved—that the gain in 
weight was due to the accumulation of material that 
his system could not utilize and that both the better 
feeling and the better color were due to the stimula¬ 
tion produced by non-usable and, hence, worse than 
useless material. 

A GREAT WANT TJNSTTPPLIED. 

Many years of close observation together with the 
discoveries set forth in this work have convinced me 
that those foods which are so highly recommended 
for the sick are, as a rule, fruitful of more harm than 
good, and that one of the greatest demands of the 
age in which we live is a food preparation, or series 
of such, which can be utilized by those who are in the 
toils of such grave diseases as anaemia, chlorosis, 
heart disease, nervous debility, rheumatism, ^tubercu¬ 
losis, cancer, diabetes mellitus and Bright’s disease. 

In short, it has come to be perfectly apparent that 
the existing methods of determining food values are 
untrustworthy and that the final settlement of the 
question calls for a well-devised and properly exe¬ 
cuted course of experimentation. 

For these reasons I have long desired to determine 
on experimental lines and under the supervision of 
reputable men of science the nutritive value, or want 
of value, as the case may be, of the various substances 
commonly used for food. 

The cost of such an undertaking as that I have in 
mind would be immense, and since the investigations 
already made have cost nearly three decades of time 



IMPORTANCE OF FURTHER RESEARCH 


345 


and all my earnings save a barely comfortable living 
for self and family, I can but fear that it will be a 
long while before I shall be able to gratify this the 
greatest desire I now have. I am as confident as a 
perfectly logical course of reasoning can make it that 
the expenditure of the comparatively trifling sum 
of Fifty Thousand Dollars would eventuate in a most 
surprising dietetic revolution and this, in turn, in the 
saving of hundreds of thousands of human lives and 
millions of money every year. If I had the above 
named sum I would gladly spend it all, if need 
be, in the attempt to verify my conclusions in this 
regard. The government could render the public no 
greater service, I am sure, than that of putting the 
views of which I speak to the test. The philanthro¬ 
pist could not find a more fruitful outlet for his 
benevolence. The great life insurance companies 
could by this means greatly prolong the life period of 
their patrons and with the incidental effect of saving 
many millions of dollars every year. And while I do 
not deem it proper to make public the views to which 
I refer in advance of the demonstration of their 
correctness, I shall be glad to confide them to any 
government, person or corporation which will en¬ 
gage to put the same to the test, in the event that I 
succeed in convincing them regarding the greatness 
of the benefits that will be likely to flow from such 
action. 

THE BASIS OF A NEW DIETETIC PHILOSOPHY. 

The experimentation to which I refer will make 
possible the establishment of a new and dependable 




346 


THE GENESIS OF PATHOGEN 


Dietetic Philosophy by disclosing existing miscon¬ 
ceptions and bringing into prominence many facts 
and principles which are scarcely less valuable or sur¬ 
prising than those revealed in this work. Reference 
is made in particular to the fact, as I see it in logical 
perspective, that an animal of any kind, herbivorous, 
frugivorous or carnivorous, will live about twice as 
long without a particle of food as it will when fed 
exclusively on any one of many articles which are 
generally regarded as dietetic essentials and, hence, 
are being consumed in this country at the rate of 
billions of pounds per annum. 

In setting forth the newly devised etiology, I have 
indulged to an extraordinary extent in repetition, re¬ 
peating the word 'pathogen with a frequency which 
will in all probability be regarded for the time being 
as unnecessary and objectionable. But the further 
we go in the discussion of the subject the more evi¬ 
dent will be the fact that the course I have pursued 
in this regard is fully warranted, and for the 
reason that the world needs to be profoundly 
impressed that the term pathogen has reference 
to a great underlying principle—namely that 
non-usuable material is the active cause of dis¬ 
eases in general. Verily, the more the existing 
situation is studied in the light of pathogen as 
the causative factor and of the historic circum¬ 
stance that reformation is at best a plant of slow 
growth, the more evident will be the fact that the 
course I am pursuing in this and other particulars, 
involving line upon line and precept upon precept, 



ENLIGHTENING SIMPLICITY 


347 


is not only entirely allowable, but highly commend¬ 
able. For the people in general, professional and 
non-professional, have become so profoundly imbued 
with the supposition that there are many distinct 
diseases and practically as many separate causes as 
there are morbid processes, that it will in all reason 
require a vast amount of repetition of this or any 
other newly conceived proposition, be it ever so 
logical, which may have for its object the rectification 
of the environment, educational, conventional and 
morbific, in which the civilized world of today is 
laboring. Nevertheless, it is to be hoped that the 
facts and explanations set forth in the following 
chapters of this work, will turn the current of med¬ 
ical investigation from the channel of confusing com¬ 
plexity, to that of enlightening simplicity, as the 
discoveries of Newton and Dalton did. 

I shall now undertake what may be termed a 
specific application of the generalization set forth in 
the preceding chapter—namely, that the various 
coagulable materials that we find in the blood, from 
the supposedly innocent serum albumin on up to 
the theoretically all-important “ primordial animal 
cell,” or white blood corpuscle, are neither more nor 
less than disease-producing agencies, constituting 
the long sought predisponent or underlying cause of 
disease—a species of waste which is so ubiquitous in 
its wanderings and so vile in its effects that it may 
well be clothed with the new and fairly specific title 
of pathogen. 

Nor can it be very far amiss to pave the way for 




348 


THE GENESIS OF PATHOGEN 


the proposed elucidation by calling attention to the 
differences that subsist between the experiences of 
men and animals. 

Reference is made, in the first place to the fact 
that every bird that soars upon the aerial expanse, 
every fish that sports in the briny deep and every 
animal that inhabits the sylvan solitudes is not only 
a perfect model of visual, mechanical and dynamical 
perfection, but an excellent example of the cheerful¬ 
ness and efficiency that should characterize the hu¬ 
man race. Among the creatures just referred to 
there are no defective eyes, no deformed limbs, no 
paralyzed organs, no mental aberration and no want 
of evidence of a joyous every-day experience. The 
only exceptions to the rule are found in man and 
the animals under his control. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

ILLNESS. 

It may in truth and reason be said that it is as 
natural for a perfectly well man to be peaceful, 
cheerful, active and resourceful, as it is for the birds 
to sing, the kittens to play and the lambs to romp. 
But for some hitherto unexplained reason a large 
and increasing percentage of human beings are drift¬ 
ing into conditions which are the very opposite to 
those that prevail among the supposedly less-favored 
creatures—a change which is, as a rule, so gradual 
in its advances and so obscure in its manifestations 
that its nature is rarely regarded in the proper light, 
both the victim himself and his associates failing to 
place the proper interpretation upon the facts in¬ 
volved. The reason for this lies in the circumstance 
that there are few if any indications of a deviation 
from normal conditions which can be easily detected 
as such. 

In the remote past, when medical science was in 
its infancy and the devotees of the healing art were 
very close observers, the term illness was coined and 
applied to those who had the outward appearance of 
being in perfect health—a good appetite and a fine 
figure, as a rule—but displayed a growing tendency to 
indulge in illnatured words and actions—first, peev¬ 
ish remarks; then fault-finding; then fits of jealousy; 
then suspicions regarding the fealty of friends and 

349 


350 


ILLNESS 


relatives; then alternations of melancholia and irasci¬ 
bility—a condition which finds vent in fierce, and 
perchance, groundless quarrels. As a general rule 
these are the signs not of perversity, but of the on¬ 
coming of serious disease. 

The sweetest of all wives and the most loyal and 
affectionate of all husbands are thus drawn little by 
little into the toils of heart-rending, soul-destroying 
and never-ending trouble. That is to say, illness 
causes the best of husbands and wives to conclude 
that theirs is a case of “incompatibility of temper,” 
or else each decides that the other is naturally and 
hopelessly perverse; that deception has been prac¬ 
ticed and that the only remedy is a bill of divorce¬ 
ment. In the great majority of cases of marital in¬ 
felicity the parties to the conflict are more to be 
pitied than blamed; for the real cause of the trouble 
is that matchless intersystemic nervous irritant which 
has now been pointed out and denominated pathogen. 
Time and again I have demonstrated the fact that 
persons thus soured and tormented can be restored to 
their pristine loveliness by conciliatory advice and 
the use of measures which will serve to eliminate 
pathogen and rectify the injuries that it has inflicted. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

A COMMON COLD. 

A Common Cold is the commonest disablement of 
our common humanity. It has been attributed to al¬ 
most every imaginable thing except the right thing. 
Every theory which has been advanced in explanation 
of this practically universal disease has failed to ac¬ 
count for its most conspicuous feature—namely, the 
matter which is discharged in the winding-up of the 
morbid process, and which must in all reason be re¬ 
garded as the principal if not the sole cause of the 
trouble. For it is a practically self-evident fact that 
the material from which the catarrhal transudate was 
formed was not produced by the exposure on which 
this disorder is generally supposed to depend, but was 
in the blood when the exposure occurred. Assuming 
that such was the case and that pathogen, or partially 
digested food, is the thing from which catarrhal mat¬ 
ter is formed, it is an easy matter to see that such a 
shrinkage of the capillaries as a chilling blast is ca¬ 
pable of producing will make it impossible for the 
viscid intruder to find its way through the vessels, and 
that the effects would be precisely what we see in a 
“cold,” namely, that clogging of the capillaries which 
we call congestion , that resistence to irritation which 
we call febrile action, and that expulsion of offending 
material which we call transudation. Verily, is it not 
an evident fact that pathogen was the principal cause 

351 


352 


CORYZA 


of every “cold” that ever occurred in the history of 
the world, and that in the absence of this singularly 
ubiquitous obstruent no amount of exposure would 
produce such a trouble ? 

The ability to resist exposures depends upon the 
tonicity of the skin, or activity of the pores, and the 
natural fluidity of the blood. When these two con¬ 
ditions prevail every chilling exposure is met by a 
rush of blood to the part aftected and a perfectly com¬ 
plete defense, not the slightest symptom of a cold ap¬ 
pearing, as the writer’s experiments have shown! On 
the other hand, when the integument has been debili¬ 
tated by close fitting underwear, and the blood has 
become surcharged with illy prepared nutrient mat¬ 
ter, it is utterly impossible for the body to defend 
itself in case of exposure; and it often happens that 
the offending material becomes so abundant and so 
viscid that it clogs the vessels independently of an 
exposure of any kind, in which case, the patient won¬ 
ders how he contracted the “cold.” 



CHAPTER XIX. 

CONSTIPATION. 

Constipation is a disease of almost universal 
prevalence and it is needless to say that it is the 
forerunner of a train of evils of almost indescribable 
extent. It is attributed by medical authorities and 
writers in general to a loss of the peristaltic move¬ 
ment of the intestinal tract, which is very correct, but 
very inconclusive. For the question evidently re¬ 
mains : What causes this loss of motion ? In other 
words, it is an undeniable fact that after thousands, 
of years of investigation, the problem of constipation 
is a problem still, the current teaching alone being the 
criterion. It may, nevertheless, be cleared up on the 
hypothesis that the substance now referred to as 
pathogen , is the disturbing element in vital affairs. 
For it will require nothing more than a brief exam¬ 
ination of the facts in the light of this theory to 
make it too plain to admit of a reasonable doubt, that 
pathogen is the causative agent. That is to say, it 
will be seen that the clogging of the capillaries with 
this material will deprive the alimentary tract of its 
just quota of nutrient matter and that the effect will 
be a corresponding derangement of that rhythmic 
and orderly performance of the tract which is called 
peristalsis—a function which cannot be materially 
abridged without compromising the purity of the 
vital fluids and producing some one or more of the 
multifarious injuries that such a fact naturally 
implies. 


353 


CHAPTER XX. 

PYREXIA OR FEVER. 

Pyrexia or Fever, is another morbid phenomenon 
of amazing frequency and fearful import; for it 
destroys multiplied thousands of people every year in 
this country alone. For thousands of years medical 
philosophers have been witnessing and studying its 
manifold facts and phases—the parched skin, the in¬ 
tense heat, the unquenchable thirst, the debility, the 
labored respiration and the mad vibrations of the 
pulsating organ—and yet one of our most gifted au¬ 
thors recently admitted, as many others have substan¬ 
tially done, that “The general causes and theory of 
fever are among the most difficult and least under¬ 
stood subjects in general pathology.”—Flint’s Prac¬ 
tice of Medicine, page 897, Seventh Edition, 1894. By 
permission of the publishers, Lea Bros. & Co., Phila¬ 
delphia, Pa. 

Now, in the light of the writer’s theory of patho- 
genosis, nothing can be plainer than the fact, that ob¬ 
struction of the cutaneous glands and capillaries is 
the essential feature, though not the primary lesion 
of this multiform and much to be dreaded disease. 
It is an undeniable fact, that pathogen is the active 
cause of every disease of the kind, and that the solu¬ 
tion, or dislodgment and removal of this widely dis¬ 
tributed inhibitor of the perspiratory function are 
the purposes of the febrile effort. For, the moment 

354 


BLACK VOMIT EXPLAINED 


35! 


the obstruction yields, diaphoresis, or sweating, be¬ 
gins and as the work progresses the body returns to 
its normal temperature. Nor can anything be more 
reasonable than the writer’s contention, that the type 
or character of the febrile process, and of many other 
morbid processes, as well, is determined by incidental, 
or co-existing conditions and influences,—sporadiac, 
miasmatic, infectious, contagious, or excrementitious. 
Yellow fever furnishes a happy illustration of the 
influence exerted by the last named class of agencies. 
For in this case, bile is evidently the type-giving or 
color-dispensing agent, the jaundiced appearance of 
the patient being due to bile pigment, and this in turn 
to the lodgment of pathogen in the hepatic glands. 
For this reason the bile cannot find exit through the 
normal channels, and must, therefore, accumulate 
until the entire system is sickened and discolored by 
it. This view of the matter finds its highest exempli¬ 
fication in the malignant form of the disease. For the 
bile thus retained eventually becomes putrid and of a 
dark brown or black color, in which condition it is 
vicariously discharged from the gastric capillaries 
into the gastric cavity and then ejected therefrom by 
emesis. Normal bile is of a pale straw color; as it 
passes into decay it becomes pale green, dark green, 
dark yellow, light brown, dark brown and finally jet 
black. Thus it is that the “black vomit” of this 
dread disease is brought about. In typhoid fever, the 
peripheral vessels and glands are likewise obstructed 
with the substance in question. The blood is thus 
forced to retire to regions which are less remote from 



256 


PYREXIA OR FEVER 


the pulsating organ, where haemostasis is sooner or 
later superinduced, and here as well as elsewhere, by 
the obstructive action of pathogen, the bacillus typhi- 
abdominalis contributing to this result to the extent 
of reducing the material in question to a coagulum. 
Then comes that stagnation, inflammation, and tissue- 
starvation which leads to necrosis of the glands of the 
intestines, the perforation of the tract, and the 
death of the patient. 



CHAPTER XXI. 


INFLAMMATION. 

Inflammation, in some one or more of its various 
forms, is marvelously prevalent. In the shape of diph¬ 
theria, pneumonia, peritonitis and appendicitis, it 
slays multiplied thousands of human beings every 
year in this country alone, and, hence, it must be con¬ 
sidered one of the most serious occurrences of human 
experience. It has been studied for thousands of 
years by the ablest men that the medical world has 
produced, and yet it must be admitted that it remains 
for some one to explain its facts and point out its 
causes, both immediate and remote. It has long been 
known that it is preceded by engorgement, or con¬ 
gestion, of the capillaries, and yet a satisfactory rea¬ 
son for this is not to be found in our literature. The 
inflammatory process has been aptly described by a 
standard authority and in the following terms, italics 
included: 

“The vessels dilate and the blood crowds into 
them. There are soon distinguishable three regions 
or zones . At the very center of the inflamed part, the 
crowd of corpuscles becomes so great as to prevent all 
movement. This constitutes the region of stasis. 
Around this is a region of slow motion, called the 
zone of congestion . Around this is a region of rapid 
motion, called the zone of determination/’ 

This author attempts in the next place to explain 

357 



358 


INFLAMMATION 


these things and in the following terms, italics 
included: 

“The swelling is caused by the passage of blood 
from the interior to the exterior of the blood vessels. 
This is only an exaggeration of normal transudation. 
One theory is that the mechanical pressure is instru¬ 
mental in pressing the blood through the walls of the 
blood vessels. * * * A second theory is that of 

chemical attraction. A third is the vital attraction 
of the tissues for the blood.”—An Epitome of Medi¬ 
cine, Surgery, Obstetrics and Pathology. Page 240. 
By permission of the Publisher, Samuel M. Miller, 
M. D., Philadelphia. 

The fact that these theories are utterly inconclu¬ 
sive need not be pointed out, for it is practically if 
not absolutely self-evident. 

Now, the crowding of the corpuscles of which this 
author speaks is an extremely significant circum¬ 
stance, but the hint thus afforded has passed unno¬ 
ticed in consequence of the false supposition that 
these erratic albuminous bodies are normal elements 
of the blood. Let it be realized that they are purely 
abnormal; that they are capable of adhering to one 
another and to the walls of the blood vessels, and with 
inhibitory effects, both glandular and vascular; that 
the living organism resents the presence of “foreign 
bodies,” and then the various enigmas which are in¬ 
volved in the inflammatory process will vanish away 
like the darkness before the rising sun. For it will 
then be seen that the “region of stasis,” mentioned in 
the foregoing quotation, is the point at which the leu¬ 
cocytes or so-called white blood corpuscles, have ef- 



SEVERAL MYSTERIES UNFOLDED 


359 


fected a complete obstruction of the capillaries; that 
the “zone of congestion” is that of partial obstruc¬ 
tion; that “the vessels dilate and the blood crowds 
into them,” for the reason that the vital fluid is in¬ 
carcerated and compressed between two opposing 
forces, namely, the vis a froute of the obstructed 
area, and the vis a tergo of the oncoming blood cur¬ 
rent, and that the “region of rapid flow” is that of 
the collateral circulation—a thing made necessary by 
the pathogenic obstruction of the more direct chan¬ 
nels. In short, it will be seen that the deflection of 
the vital current, the tissue-starvation and the at¬ 
tending inflammation are one and all caused by the 
obstructive and irritating action of pathogen. And 
since it has recently developed that pneumonia has 
advanced to the second place in the mortality lists of 
the great cities, is it not an evident fact that the 
medical practitioner is in duty bound to add to his 
knowledge of the pneumococcus a knowledge of the 
soil upon which the action of this organism depends 
and to this a knowledge of the means whereby this 
soil may be removed from the body ? 



CHAPTER XXII. 

EPILEPSY AND CATALEPSY. 

Epilepsy and Catalepsy have been among the 
standing mysteries of the centuries, ancient, mediae¬ 
val and modern. They have not only provoked an 
almost incomparable amount of study and specula¬ 
tion, but have for many centuries challenged all in¬ 
vestigation, baffled all understanding and defeated all 
medication, as the following quotation will show: 

“While the pathology of epilepsy is, as yet, an un¬ 
written chapter, there are several inferences which 
appear to me fairly well grounded. One of these is 
the existence of an organic defect in the finer and as 
yet inscrutible ultimate structure of the corticospinal 
neurons. Concerning the nature of this defect we are 
quite as much in the dark, but not any more so than 
we are with reference to the cognate defect which 
underlies hysteria. The assumption in both cases of 
such a fundamental deviation from the average nor¬ 
mal type of construction of the nervous system, of 
the existence of inherent tendencies which are excep¬ 
tional rather than typical, and which are possibly al¬ 
ways inherited, or at least acquired during the early 
developmental period, appears to me absolutely nec¬ 
essary to explain why apparently identical causes 
will produce the clinical manifestations of these neu¬ 
roses in one case and fail to do so in a hundred others. 
Whatever may be the real character of this change of 
deviation from the normal type, it is permanent and 
must be organic in nature. It bestows on the individ¬ 
ual the liability to have epilepsy. He has, so to speak, 

360 


EXISTING PERPLEXITIES 


361 


potential epilepsy. Whether he ever has the manifest 
symptoms or not will depend on a variety of circum¬ 
stances. Perhaps in one group of cases the psychical, 
sensory or motor instability, incident to this underly¬ 
ing organic basis, may be sufficiently strong to give 
rise to an evolution of the active disease, spontaneous 
in character. This, however, may well be doubted. 
The spontaneity is probably only apparent. Intrin¬ 
sic or environmental conditions may easily furnish 
unrecognizable though efficient causes. In other 
cases the so-called exciting cause is sufficiently ob¬ 
vious—a traumatism, an emotional shock, an acute 
illness, a failure of elimination, etc. These are, how¬ 
ever, the common incidents of life and are only effi¬ 
cient exciting causes of epilepsy in the presence of 
something entirely exceptional in the individual, 
namely, the organic basis already assumed. 

“It is perhaps idle, in the existing state of our 
knowledge, to speculate on the nature of these varia¬ 
tions from the usual or normal type of the nervous 
system. In using the term organic to designate them 
it is not intended, of course, to convey the idea that 
they are demonstrable by our present means of re¬ 
search. The term, owing to its traditional associa¬ 
tions, is even objectionable, but I have made a requi¬ 
sition on my vocabulary in vain for a substitute 
which would be at all adequate. In some sense those 
conditions which form the underlying permanent 
basis of such states as epilepsy and hysteria must be 
anatomic in their nature. That we are unable to de¬ 
termine their nature, or even demonstrate their ex¬ 
istence, is simply a question of the limitations of our 
knowledge at the present time, or possibly for all time 
to come. A proper conception of this anatomic basis, 
however, should not have to wait on its histologic 
demonstration. Our general knowledge of pathology 



362 


EPILEPSY AND CATALEPSY 


and the relation of structure to function would seem 
to point with sufficient logical force to the anatomic 
character of this underlying condition. A proper 
view of these conditions is important, if for no other 
reason than to throw a little restraint on harmfully 
aggressive and irrationally meddlesome therapeu¬ 
tics.’ ’—G. W. McGaskey, M. D., in Journal American 
Medical Association, January 23rd, 1904.—By per¬ 
mission of the Editor. 

Dr. McGaskey has, in my opinion, come nearer 
to a recognition of the truth concerning the causation 
of this disease than any other writer of modern times, 
in that he has noticed that “ Gastro-Intestinal Dis¬ 
ease” has something to do with it. 

Another contributor to the Journal testifies as 
follows: 

“The light which science has thrown on this sub¬ 
ject is so slight that to-day we are almost blindly 
groping in the dark, as those of us who come in con¬ 
tact with this fearful malady reach out our hands and 
grasp first one object then another, hoping that we 
are going to find the match whose tiny spark may fin¬ 
ally illuminate the darkness about us. We can not 
help believing that with our increased knowledge of 
the secretions and excretions of the various glands of 
the body and the changed conditions of the blood 
from these and other sources, coupled with our better 
understanding of the nervous system, that we must 
to-day be in close proximity to the source of light. 

“I have no intention of wandering into the clouds 
of speculation and theory, but wish to speak of a few 
things that I think important in our present dark¬ 
ness, well aware that further light may relegate them 
to the rubbish pile as useless and unnecessary. 




FRUITLESS SPECULATION 


363 


“My first experience in epilepsy was in early boy¬ 
hood; one of my playfellows, who was a strong, 
bright, vigorous boy, began having peculiar spells 
that increased in frequency and violence till he be¬ 
came an object of fear to the children with whom he 
played, and was finally tossed on the shores of life a 
battered, hopeless, intellectual wreck. I remember 
asking the question then which I have so often asked 
myself in later years, “what makes him do that? 

“It is well for us to continue asking this question 
and to search diligently for answers to it, for it is our 
knowledge of this cause or causes that enables us to 
benefit these unfortunates with our care and treat¬ 
ment. Our search for the cause may not be success¬ 
ful, then we are forced to return to our time-worn 
battlements and say that it is due to an easily excited 
or unstable condition of the cortical cells. ‘Why are 
these cells in this condition?’ is our next question. 
When we are able to answer this, we will have arrived 
at a position from which we can observe the underly¬ 
ing causes of epilepsy, and begin to handle it in an 
intelligent and scientific manner.”—J. G. Miller, M. 
D., in Journal American Medical Association, Janu¬ 
ary 23rd, 1904.—By permission of the Editor. 

It is needless to quote further in proof of the 
claim that no authority of repute has so much as laid 
claim to a knowledge of either the primary lesion in 
this disease or the means whereby a permanent cure 
can be effected. For these reasons all medication 
thus far employed has been purely palliative. The 
remedies employed in extreme cases have been more 
or less’ detrimental to vital interests, but a resort to 
such was made necessary by the fact that less potent 




S64 


EPILEPSY AND CATALEPSY 


agencies were insufficient to produce the desired ef¬ 
fect; that is, to relieve the nervous tension. 

Examine the fauces of any person who is afflicted 
with either of these diseases and you will find the 
evidences of the truth of the proposition, that patho - 
genosis of the gastric capillaries was the primary 
lesion and that this led to gastritis. That is to say, 
you will find that the oral cavity is inflamed and tume¬ 
fied, if nothing more—facts which can have no other 
meaning than that a similar if not a much worse state 
of things prevails further down the tract, in the gas¬ 
tric laboratory. You will then see the meaning of the 
fact that all epileptics and cataleptics are victims of 
a ravenous appetite—that this abnormal craving is 
nothing more nor less than the irritation that is su¬ 
perinduced by gastric obstruction. And, if you take 
into consideration the possibilities of nervous irrita¬ 
tion, you will perceive that the epileptic paroxysm is 
neither more nor less than the cumulative effect of 
the same conditions that gave rise to the morbid ap¬ 
petite—that nervous tension, occasioned by long- 
continued irritation, has resulted in exhaustion of 
the peripheral nerves, a rush of blood upon the nerv¬ 
ous centres, and an abnormal development of the 
nervous and muscular energies. You will also per¬ 
ceive that the “aura epileptica” is symptomatic of the 
fact that the vasomotor system has become exhausted 
in consequence of a long continued attempt to main¬ 
tain the circulatory balance while the blood is laden 
with plastic pathogen, and that the blood is being 
forced by atmospheric pressure from peripheral to 



A GOOD GUESS 


365 


central and cerebral regions, and with paralyzing 
effect. 

The reader will hardly fail to perceive that Dir 1 . 
Miller was right in saying, as he did in the above quo¬ 
tation, that “we must be in close proximity to the 
source of light’’ and that the much needed light is 
now beaming forth from the discovery of pathogen. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

RHEUMATISM AND GOUT. 

Rheumatism and Gout are among the most pain¬ 
ful diseases with which the world has had to contend, 
and it is needless to say that they have been as puz¬ 
zling to the medical profession as they have been dis¬ 
tressing to their victims.'’ For a long space of time 
they have been attributed to the “uric acid diathesis’’ 
or the presence of uric acid in the blood. That the 
blood of the rheumatic and gouty is contaminated 
with this material, is a proposition that no one will 
venture to dispute. But the most that can be said of 
this doctrine is, that it is good as far as it goes. For 
it is an evident fact that it is far from being as con¬ 
clusive as science or reason demands, in that the ques¬ 
tion must still be answered: What causes uric acid 
to accumulate in the blood ? 

This question and all other questions concerning 
these extremely painful and persistent diseases may 
be answered in pretty much the same way that the 
foregoing have been. The duly attentive reader will 
scarcely need to be told that both the occurrence and 
the accumulation of uric acid in the blood is due to 
the previous presence therein of that fertile pro¬ 
ducer of toxic materials which has been referred to 
so often in these pages as the active cause of diseases 
in general. For the facts and arguments already pre¬ 
sent are strongly suggestive of two facts; first, that 



PRODUCTION OF URIC ACID 


367 


uric acid owes its origin to the intra-vascular decom¬ 
position of the nitrogenous substance called pathogen, 
and second, that its accumulation in the blood is due 
to the lodgement of pathogen in the renal vessels and 
glands. In other words, it will be seen that the uric 
acid diathesis” is due to the excessive production 
and the retention of urea, and that pathogen is re¬ 
sponsible for both. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

UTERINE DISEASES AND DISPLACEMENTS. 

In Uterine Diseases, and Displacements, we have 
a series of morbid phenomena, which have been as 
puzzling to the medical profession, as they have been 
distressing to womankind. These disorders were for 
a long time attributed to congestion and a concurrent 
weakening of the supporting ligaments. The theory 
was subsequently advanced that the debility of these 
parts is due to malnutrition, which is a palpable fact, 
and very good as far as it goes. Nor can there be any¬ 
thing plainer than the fact that these explanations 
lack a great deal of explaining; for the question 
must yet be answered: What causes the anomalous 
complications referred to by the one class of authori¬ 
ties, and the malnutrition pointed out by the other ? 

After what has now been said with reference to 
*he causation of disease, it will scarcely be necessary 
to attempt to show that pathogen is capable of pro¬ 
ducing ever^ope of these vexatious conditions. For 
it must now be ev^nt that the presence of such a 
thing in the circulation will prevent the food from 
finding its way into the cells < the uterine system, 
and with some one or more of the Allowing results: 
1. The uterine walls will become so weak and flabbv 
that flexion—a bending of the uterus upon itself— 
will of necessity occur. 2. The cells of the supporting 
ligaments will be deprived of their share of nutri 

368 


UTERINE DISPLACEMENTS EXPLAINED 


369 


ment, while the uterine vessels are becoming con¬ 
gested and overloaded with waste matter—a weaken¬ 
ing of the one set of structures and an over-loading 
of the other which will cause the uterus to either drop 
upon the floor of the pelvis, as in prolapsus, or push 
its way to the outer world, as in procidentia. It will 
also be seen that a still more extensive obstruction of 
the uterine circulation will produce nearly every one 
of the changes that occur in the progress of the vari¬ 
ous morbid uterine growths and ulcerative processes, 
and that the element of malignancy is imparted by 
the putrescent waste products, fecal, renal and 
biliary, which have accumulated in consequence of 
co-existing conditions of similar origin—that malig¬ 
nancy is due to the production of the vilest form of 
pathogen and the retention and decay of renal and 
biliary matter. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

HYPERTROPHY, ATROPHY AND OBESITY. 

Hypertrophy, Atrophy and Obesity have proved 
to be as difficult of explanation and almost as refrac¬ 
tory to therapeutic endeavor, as the diseases above re¬ 
ferred to. They are so radically different in their 
outward appearance and in other respects, that not 
even the most sagacious of all medical investigators 
has so much as suspected that they depend upon a 
common cause. And yet it is an undeniable fact that 
they are dependent upon that marvelously versatile 
causative agent that lies at the bottom of the above 
named diseases. In proof of this it need only be 
said: 1. That hypertrophy is due to interstitial path- 
ogenosis, or the crowding of plastic pathogen into 
the interstitial spaces, the resulting enlargement be¬ 
ing due to the combined effects of hyperaemia, or 
damning-up of the blood, pathogenic infiltration and 
a defensive proliferation of tissues —an effort on the 
part of the organism to defend itself against the in¬ 
vading “foreign body.” 2. That atrophy in all its 
forms, from that of the shrinking of a single member 
on up to that most pronounced form of this disease 
which is called marasmus, is due to pathogenic ob¬ 
struction of the capillaries upon which both digestion 
and muscular replenishment depend. 3. That obesity 
is due to imperfect elaboration of food and to the hy¬ 
dration of the carbon of this partially digested ma- 

370 


ORIGINATION OF ADIPOSE TISSUE 


371 


terial. In other words, the partially digested food 
is transformed into fat, which is stored (in the form 
of droplets) in the areolar tissues and other favor¬ 
able places, where it remains until a more active life 
affords the opportunity for it to be taken up by the 
blood and borne to the lungs, where it is oxidized and 
discharged. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

LOCOMOTOR ATAXIA. 

Locomotor Ataxia is another phenomenon of enig¬ 
matical import and it is needless to say that it is one 
of the most intractable as well as painful disorders 
known to either theoretic or practical medicine. 
Pathologists have never claimed the possession of any 
information regarding the remote or primary cause 
of this strange and strangely inveterate insubordina¬ 
tion of the motor mechanism, nervous and muscular, 
of the body. The phenomenal aspects of the disorder, 
the piercing pains, the straggling gait, the visual de¬ 
fects, the absence of the tendon reflexes, etc., etc., are 
set down in eminent detail in our literature, but the 
most that has been said regarding the causation of 
the trouble is to the effect that it is due to sclerosis of 
the posterior columns of the spinal cord. This is good 
as far as it goes, but it lacks a great deal of explain¬ 
ing the difficulty. It simply brings us face to face, as 
it were, with the very question that needs most to be 
answered—namely, what causes this hardening, or 
disabling solidification, of the means of communica¬ 
tion between the ruling power—the will—and the 
more remote subdivisions of its empire 1 ? But the 
success achieved by the writer in behalf of parties 
thus afflicted warrants the affirmation that this ap¬ 
parently unanswerable interrogation has found an 
incontestible answer in the proposition that pathogen 

372 


VISUAL AND TENDON REFLEXES 


373 


is responsible for every such change, disabling the 
cord by insinuating itself between the various mem¬ 
bers or filaments thereof, and with sufficient force 
to interfere with both the nutrition and the action of 
some of the nerve fibres while others are compara¬ 
tively free and able, therefore, to respond, though 
fitfully, and imperfectly, to the mandates of the will, 
the visible effect of this invisible action being that an¬ 
archistic performance of the muscles and nerves 
which is called locomotor ataxia. 

The concomitant and equally problematic thick¬ 
ening and opacity of the pia mater and the arteries, 
together with the deficiencies in the visual and tendon 
reflexes are, one and all, produced by the same agent 
that disables the posterior columns of the spinal cord 
and in a similar way. The inveteracy of this and 
other morbid conditions is referable to the fact that 
pathogen is for the most part composed of those most 
insoluble and imperishable organic materials which 
are known to science as fibrin and cellulose. In other 
words, the causation, chronicity and intractability 
of Tabes Dorsalis, commonly called locomotor ataxia, 
are due to the indigestibility of the cortical sub¬ 
stance of the cereals and legumes and of the fibrous 
elements of flesh foods. After these substances have 
started the individual on the downward road the 
glutens and albumins add to his difficulties, as stated 
and explained in this and other chapters of this work. 

The fact that in the progress of the disease in 
question the spinal cord becomes “ reduced in size, 
gray in color and firmer than normal,” as authorities 



374 


LOCOMOTOR ATAXIA 


have remarked, is attributable to the dehydration, or 
inspissation, of the offending infiltrate—namely, 
pathogen. 

Furthermore, it would not be very far amiss to 
assert that locomotor ataxia is Bright’s disease minus 
albuminuria; for it is very evident that these diseases 
depend upon the same cause—pathogen—and have 
several symptoms in common—namely, chronic 
pharyngitis, chronic gastritis, a variable or voracious 
appetite, and both tube-casts and sedimentary ma¬ 
terials in the urine, the only want of a practically 
complete similarity between the diseases in question 
being the absence of albumin from tabetic urine. 
Nor is the reason for this hard to detect, for it is 
not at all difficult to see that the same kind of ma¬ 
terial that finds exit through the kidneys in nephritis, 
is forced from the spinal capillaries into the spinal 
cord in tabes dorsalis, or what is commonly called 
locomotor ataxia. It is needless to add anything to 
what has been said in the preceding pages regarding 
the way in which and the means whereby the patho¬ 
gen is forced out of the circulation, and into the inter¬ 
stices of the cord. 

As time advances and preconceived notions fade 
away, the medical profession will come to realize that 
pathogen is the hitherto unknown factor in the hith¬ 
erto inexplicable phenomenon of tabes dorsalis and 
that the generalization now being rounded out in ex¬ 
planation of morbid phenomena is essentially if not 
absolutely correct. 



ATAXIC ACTION ELUCIDATED 


375 


It is an undeniable fact that this explanation of 
locomotor ataxia is entirely within the bounds of en¬ 
lightened reason. Physicians, physiologists and 
pathologists, one and all, will freely concede that 
pressure upon a nerve-tract will interfere with its 
action in some way or other, and that such interfer¬ 
ence is apt to be attended with a fitful, or ataxic, flow 
of the nervous influence. 

But be this at it may the fact remains, that this 
disease has in several instances, including one of five 
years duration, yielded to treatment having reference 
to the prevention and removal of pathogen, as above 
intimated. The various measures on which this 
achievement was based will be set forth in the third 
subdivision of this work. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 


NEURASTHENIA. 

Neurasthenia is a morbid phenomenon of amaz¬ 
ing prevalence, and it goes without saying that it is as 
perplexing to the medical profession as it is annoy¬ 
ing to its victims. The condition in question has al¬ 
ways been attributed, as the name thereof implies, 
to a loss of nervous energy. Even if this were true 
(which it is not) it would be of little or no practical 
value, for the question remains unanswered and ex¬ 
tremely insistent: What causes this loss of energy ? 

In the light of the discoveries set forth in part one, 
it is plain that the notion that there is a loss of nerv¬ 
ous energy in such cases is not only untrue, but 
the very reverse of the truth. That is to say, persons 
thus afflicted are suffering not from a loss of nervous 
energy, but the reverse of this—from increased nu¬ 
trition in the nervous system and decreased nutrition 
in the muscular system. It is an undeniable fact that 
neurasthenia is due to two co-existing conditions for 
both of which pathogen is responsible. For in every 
case of the kind there is ample evidence of gastric 
pathogenosis—a blocking of the gastric apparatus 
which makes it impossible for this organ to properly 
prepare as much food as the entire system requires. 
Hence, the nerves, being always first in point of time 
to act, play the part, if I may use a crude illustra-j 
tion, of the pig that always gets to the trough in ad- 
376 


NEURASTHENIA A MISNOMER 


377 


vance of his fellows—that of gulping the greater part 
of the food and leaving the less active to take the little 
that he leaves. In addition to the inference that the 
muscles are similarly deprived of their just quantum 
of food, is the well known fact that the peripheral cir¬ 
culation of the neurasthenic is very poor, which justi¬ 
fies the writer’s contention that the superficial ves¬ 
sels are so badly clogged with pathogen that the 
greater part of the blood is compelled to retire to, or 
remain in, central regions, where the principal nerv¬ 
ous centers are located. In such circumstances the 
muscles in general and those of the periphery in 
particular must necessarily pass into debility from 
want of nutritive support, while the nervous centers 
are becoming abnormally powerful from the super¬ 
abundance of nutriment that is being forced upon 
them. In other words, nutrition is diverted from the 
muscular system to the nervous centers, the effects 
being malnutrition in the former and hypernutrition 
in the latter. Then, upon the slightest provocation, 
there comes that seemingly spontaneous and essen¬ 
tially tyrannical nervous action—the domination of 
weak muscles by strong nerves—which throws the 
entire organism into a tremor in utter defiance of 
the will—a phenomenon, or symptom complex, which 
has not been understood and has therefore been mis¬ 
named “Nervous Debility.’’ 

It may not be amiss to remark in passing that 
there is and can be no such things as the so-called 
“nervous twitchings.” Every phenomenon of the 
kind may be correctly interpreted by saying it is 




378 


NEURASTHENIA 


neither more nor less than muscular contraction 
superinduced by Nervous Irritation and that nearly 
every thing of the kind is referable to that matchless 
disturber of the vital equilibrium now pointed out 
and named pathogen. 

It is not at all unreasonable to suppose thac when 
a man’s muscular and nervous systems are equally 
nourished, he will be able to maintain under all ordi¬ 
nary and under some extraordinary circumstances a 
complete control of the motor mechanism of his body, 
the effect being that health-indicating attribute called 
‘ 6 self-command. ’ ’ 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 


FIBROSIS. 

Fibrosis is another phenomenon having its origin 
in pathogenosis and is to be regarded as the embodi¬ 
ment of another mystery of mysteries and a shining 
example of the seemingly inexplicable in pathology. 
It forms the hitherto mysterious labyrinth that leads 
from the pink of expanding manhood, to the “brown 
and sere” of untimely senility, or premature old age. 
It assails not only the octogenarian but the middle- 
aged, the adolescent and the infantile, as well. In the 
prosecution of its nefarious work, fibrin ramifies, 
first of all, the remotest recesses of the circulating 
system, adhering to the walls of the vessels and form¬ 
ing an embolus, perchance, therein; it wends its way 
through the vessel walls and into the interstitial 
spaces of the lungs, the liver and the kidneys; it insin¬ 
uates itself between the component elements of the 
various tissues, those of the pulsating organ and of 
the respiratory system not excepted. And having 
taken possession of these structures and inclosed 
their component parts in a filamentous web-work 
which extends in every conceivable direction, it pro¬ 
ceeds to crush out the little that remains in the shape 
of vitality and structural freedom, and this by the 
simple but eminently effective method of undergoing 
a species of inspissation—a drying-up process the in¬ 
visible effects of which are the shortening of its every 

' 379 


380 


FIBROSIS 


fibre, the stiffening of the muscles or other organs in 
which it is located, and the reduction of the size and 
activity of the same, while the visible effects are the 
wrinkled countenance, the halting gait and the wan¬ 
ing intellect, that we see in the on-coming and prog¬ 
ress of senility, or premature old age. In other 
words, the fibrin finds its way from the blood vessels 
into the interstices of the various structures of the 
body and then, in keeping with its glue-like nature, it 
begins to dry up, as it were, shrinking transversely 
and longitudinally, and in exact ratio to the loss of its 
aqueous element, thus producing the contracted kid¬ 
neys, the indurated livers the shrunken lungs, the 
shriveled skin, and the other abnormalities that go to 
make up the facts and phenomena of senile decay and 
of fibrinous involvement in general. 

What does all this mean and how can it be ex¬ 
plained, if not in accordance with the writer’s conten¬ 
tion, that gastric pathogenosis is the primary lesion 
in diseases in general—that a diseased stomach is the 
center from which several lines of morbid phenomena 
radiate, which have seemed to be of diverse origin 
when such is not the case, and that fibrosis is the ter¬ 
minal event of one of these lines. In short, that 
fibrosis is one of the many disasters that have their 
origin in the excessive or ill-advised use, and per con¬ 
sequence the imperfect elaboration of the glutens, 
albumins and albuminoids. 

However improbable or unreasonable it may at 
first appear, the fact remains firmly grounded and 
absolutely incontestable, that all fibrination wdiether 




ETIOLOGY OF FIBROSIS 


381 


slight or extensive, normal or abnormal, is the result 
of the absorption of partially digested material, cel¬ 
lulose, fibrin, gluten and albumen—things which are 
highly concentrated and therefore hard to digest, as 
shown by the great length of time required for this 
purpose. The fact is, that the entrance of fibrinifer- 
ous material (pathogen) into the circulation and the 
consequent development of fibrin, is in the very na¬ 
ture of things unavoidable. That is to say, some al¬ 
buminous or glutenous material must of necessity 
find its way into the circulation before it is completely 
digested. And since it is not sufficiently diffusible to 
be used in the growth of the body or the repair of its 
injured tissues, and since it is for the same reason 
unable to reach its destination in the nutritive cells 
of the muscles and nerves, it is not only useless, but 
essentially deleterious, and must therefore be dis¬ 
posed of in some way or other. The All-Wise- 
Creator, seeing the end from the beginning, has made 
ample provision for the discharge of all imperfectly 
elaborated food substance which may be unavoidably 
introduced into the circulation, and, as one familiar 
with nature’s operations would naturally expect, on 
highly economical lines. 

The truth of this claim will be brought into promi¬ 
nence by a careful inquiry concerning the antece¬ 
dents, concomitants, and resultants of normal fibri- 
nation. For it will thus be developed; first, that a 
considerable percentage of food which has been ab¬ 
sorbed in advance of its arrival at the point of com¬ 
plete liquefaction is transformed into fibrinogen and 



382 


FIBROSIS 


utilized, whenever the opportunity presents itself, for 
the sealing-up of ruptured vessels and the protection 
of abraded and lacerated surfaces; second, that at an 
early period of its life history, so to speak, it is con¬ 
veyed to the liver, in the glands of which it is trans¬ 
formed into bile; third, that this is emptied into the 
duodenum, where its alkalinity is utilized in common 
with that of the pancreatic secretion for the neutral¬ 
ization of the acids that obtain in certain fruits and 
vegetables which are used for food. In short, all par¬ 
tially digested albumen and gluten that finds its way 
into the circulation under fairly normal circum¬ 
stances, or unavoidably, as above stated, is removed 
from the precincts of vitality at the earliest possible 
moment and by transforming it into a substance 
which will subserve the purposes above stated. 

Abnormal fibrination is a radically different 
thing, however, from this. For there are few morbid 
processes of which it can in truth be said that they 
are more pervasive in their extent or more problem¬ 
atic in their character than fibrosis, the disease un¬ 
der consideration, has proved to be. 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

TUMORS, OR NEOPLASMS. 

A New and Consistent Explanation of these impor¬ 
tant, much discussed and Extremely Obscure 
Formations, Comprehending a Novel and re¬ 
markably lucid interpretation of Neoplastic 
Phenomena. 

Tumors are found in various parts of the body, 
and are defined as “Circumscribed enlargements of a 
part due to the presence of a morbid growth.” They 
are classified according to their histological features. 
The term Fibroma is applied to those that appear to 
be composed of fibrous tissues; Myxoma to-those 
which are made up of mucoid material; Lipoma to 
those which are composed of adipose material; Chon¬ 
droma to those that have a cartilaginous appearance; 
Myoma to those which resemble muscle substance, 
and Neuroma to those which resemble or are appar¬ 
ently composed of nervous tissue. 
t Why the human body should become afflicted with 
any one of these growths has been a puzzle of the 
most perplexing order, baffling for centuries the 
ablest talent known to the annals of medicine. Not 
the least of the puzzles presented by these growths 
resides in the fact that for the greater part of their 
existence they are practically devoid of pain. 

The fact that these growths are as problematic as 
they ever were is admitted, in substance, or otherwise, 
by all authorities of recent date. Nevertheless, they 

383 


384 


TUMORS, OR NEOPLASMS 


seem perfectly confident that these growths are 
composed of genuine “anatomical” elements (cells), 
and that the formation of a tumor is due to “cellular 
anarchy.” In other words, it is held in all authori¬ 
tative circles that tumors are formed in consequence 
of the anarchistic behavior of the particles (cells) of 
which they are composed. 

The fact that this supposedly trustworthy clue has 
been followed for a long space of time by men of in¬ 
contestable ability and without lessening the etiologic 
mystery, is both perfectly and painfully evident, and 
yet no authority has seemed to suspect that there is 
something wrong with this much worked and singu¬ 
larly fruitless hypothesis. 

After setting forth the leading theories that have 
been advanced with the view of unraveling the mys¬ 
teries in question, Prof. Coplin refers to the situation 
in the following terms: 

“The foregoing brief consideration of the most 
plausible reasons advanced to explain neoplastic 
growths indicates our ignorance of the essential etio¬ 
logic factor in tumor formation. There are, how¬ 
ever, certain predisposing elements worthy of con¬ 
sideration. Some of the conditions previously con¬ 
sidered may be active in this way: Trauma and in¬ 
flammation may predispose to tumor formation just 
as they predispose to infection, and long-continued 
irritation or prolonged ulceration may act also as 
predisposing elements.”—From Coplin’s Manual of 
Pathology, by the courtesy of the publishers, P. 
Blakiston’s Son & Co., Philadelphia. 

The wide-awake reader will hardly need to be told 




NEOPLASMS EXPLAINED 


385 


that the “ essential etiologic factor in tumor forma¬ 
tion,” to which Professor Coplin referred as being 
unknown, is that of a disordered digestion—a trouble 
which finds expression in the introduction into the 
body of a corresponding amount illy-prepared albu¬ 
minoid material, and with the ultimate result of the 
formation of that albuminoid mass to which the term 
neoplasm has been applied. 

Now, I would respectfully submit in passing that 
this thing of trying to account for neoplasms by re¬ 
ferring them to other morbid processes (irritation 
and ulceration) which have never been adequately 
accounted for, is not to remove, but to merely shift 
the difficulty. 

A little further on the worthy professor declares, 
that “Neoplasms are subject to two general laws,” 
and then sets forth these laws in the following terms, 
italics included: 

“1. Muller’s Law: The tissue that forms the 
tumor has its type in a tissue of the organism, either 
adult or embryonic . By this is meant that, no matter 
what the cellular elements of a tumor may be, such 
elements occur as normal structures in the adult tis¬ 
sues or in the tissues of the embryo at some period of 
its development. 

“2. Virchow’s Law: The cellular elements of a 
tumor are derived from the pre-existing cells of the 
organism . Virchow adds that they are the progeny 
of the cells of the connective tissue,—a view clearly 
incorrect with regard to many neoplasms. 

“By the acceptance of these two laws we arrive at 
the fact that tumors spring from structures once nor- 



TUMORS, OR NEOPLASMS 


386 


mal, and represent, when fully developed, tissues that 
were normal; in other words, tumors are not impor¬ 
tations into our bodies, but, like all other morbid 
processes, are preversions of normal cellular activ¬ 
ity.”—Prom Coplin’s Manual of Pathology, by the 
courtesy of the publishers, P. Blakiston’s Son & Co., 
Philadelphia. 

The foregoing quotations have been introduced for 
the express purpose of calling attention to the unde¬ 
niable fact that in our attempts to unravel the prob¬ 
lems in question we have been following the ignis 
fatuus of a false theory, and that it has led us into 
the dismal swamp of utter confusion—the confusion 
that comes from the mistaking of similarity for 
identity. That is to say, we became seriously blinded 
and confused in consequence of the acceptance of the 
very plausible but utterly fallacious hypothesis that 
those cell-shaped objects we see in the blood and in 
the morbid growths in question, are cellular struc¬ 
tures and destined to take part in vital operations. 

Aside from this baseless assumption it is not at all 
difficult to perceive that neoplasms are attributable 
not to “cellular anarchy,” but to gastric anarchy — 
that the gastric apparatus is so badly disordered that 
it is unable to digest the more concentrated elements 
of the ingesta, and that the illy-prepared material 
thus introduced into the body is the thing that gives 
rise to neoplasms of whatever name or character. 
In other words, when the mists afforded by the minor 
premise of the cell-theory shall have cleared away, it 
will be evident to the humblest comprehension, that 
the great leaders in the domain of medical research 



EXPLANATORY PROPOSITIONS 


387 


have made a very grave mistake in assuming that 
“ tumors are not importations/ ’ but “ perversions of 
normal cellular activity.” For it is an incontestible 
proposition that the materials of which tumors are 
composed are imported, in the sense of being derived 
from external sources and in the shape of the cruder 
elements of the ingesta—that the cell-shaped particles 
are not cells, but pathogen which has been broken up 
in passing through the lymph-nodes; that the 
“fibrous tissue” and the “connective tissue” are not 
real tissues, but pathogen which has been converted 
by the spleen into fibriniferous material and in such 
abundance that the liver could not dispose of it by 
converting it into bile, as explained in the chapter re¬ 
garding the functions of the spleen; and that the lipo- 
maceous material is produced from pathogen by con¬ 
verting its carbon element into a hydrocarbon, as 
explained in a preceding chapter. 

With the view of clearing up the difficulties re¬ 
ferred to in Delafield and Prudens’ work on Pathol¬ 
ogy, attention is invited to the following statements 
regarding the problem involved in tumor etiology: 

“When all has been said about general and local 
predisposing factors in tumors; when through ob¬ 
servation and experiment all possible light has been 
thrown upon the nature of their immediate excitants, 
we are still face to face with a host of problems re¬ 
lating to tumors as organized entities showing com¬ 
plex tissue adjustments and revealing specific in¬ 
herited qualities and powers.” 

In view of the criticisms I have already made, it 
is scarcely necessary to point out that the biggest 



388 


TUMORS, OR NEOPLASMS 


member of the “host of problems” to which these* 
authorities refer is the mistaken notion to which the 
closing sentence refers—the notion that tumors are 
formed by living elements which possess “inherited 
qualities and powers,” and which refuse to observe 
the legitimate rules of action, as other authorities 
have declared. 

A little further on these authors speak of the “Need 
of New Research in Tumors” in the course of which 
they say: 

“It has become evident of late that much of the 
statistical lore of tumors, especially of malignant 
types, which has been handed on from one writer to 
another, is in need of a critical revision, and that 
many of the current opinions regarding malignant 
tumors are based upon alleged observations of doubt¬ 
ful validity and upon inferences hastily and illogic- 
ally drawn.”—From A Text-Book of Pathology, by 
the courtesy of the publishers, Wm. Wood & Com¬ 
pany, New York. 

Verily, there is much need of “revision in the cur¬ 
rent opinion,” and I venture to say that it must in 
elude the rejection of the very groundwork thereof. 
The trouble resides not in “observations of doubtful 
validity,” but in a basic concept which is destitute of 
validity. Blot out the apparently plausible, but 
really ilogical supposition, that the cell-like elements 
to which authors refer are or ever were normal, and 
then it will be an easy matter to see that these so- 
called cells are nothing more or less than variously 
shaped particles of the arch deceiver and matchless 
destroyer, Pathogen. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

CARCINOMA OR CANCER. 

Carcinoma or Cancer is another item in the 
somewhat lengthy category of enigmatical and fatal 
diseases. It occurs, as a rule, at the very period of 
Life when one would naturally suppose that the vital 
forces and structures are at the height of their in¬ 
tegrity and as fully prepared, therefore, to defend 
themselves against the invasion of obnoxious agen¬ 
cies as it is possible for them to be; and it is need¬ 
less to say that, as a rule, it has gone forward with 
its destructive work in utter defiance of all reme¬ 
dial measures and modes of management that human 
ingenuity has been able to devise. Nor is it neces¬ 
sary to point out that this dread foe of life is rapidly 
increasing; for it has come to be generally known, 
in professional circles at least, that within the last 
ten years it has increased to the alarming extent of 
twenty-five per cent. So deeply has this fact im¬ 
pressed itself upon His Majesty, the King of Eng¬ 
land, that he was constrained, not only to call the at¬ 
tention of the British Medical Association to it, but 
to assert in substance that the discovery of the cause 
and cure of cancer is next in importance to the so¬ 
lution of the mysteries which are wrapped up in 
that besom of destruction for whose consideration 
the eminent medical investigators he was addressing 
were the more especially assembled; namely, pulmo¬ 
nary consumption. 


390 


CARCINOMA OR CANCER 


At about the same date an organization was 
formed in that country for the especial purpose of 
discovering, if possible, the cause of cancer, and an 
“Imperial Cancer Research Fund” was provided, 
and after six years of strenuous effort on the part of 
an able corps of investigators, we find in Nature for 
December 31st, 1908, a three-page report setting forth 
the difficulties encountered and the results obtained. 
The article in question embodies many very gloomy 
statements among which are the following, page 26: 

“advance in knowledge of cancer.” 

“In conformity with a scheme of inquiry em¬ 
barked upon in October, 1902, the third scientific re¬ 
port of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, recently 
issued, treats, like its predecessors, of cancer as a 
problem of general and experimental biology. It con¬ 
tains no definite answer to the questions, What is the 
nature and what the cause of cancer? and beyond 
demonstrating that systematic experiment justifies 
the early surgical removal of a tumor as the only 
possible treatment at the present time, the report is 
silent as to remedial and preventive measures. These 
shortcomings will almost certainly arouse misgivings 
on the part of those who cannot appreciate how prog¬ 
ress is made in any field of knowledge. * * * 

“Meantime, the importance of the investigation 
of cancer is only too grimly emphasized by its fre¬ 
quency as a cause of death. The number of deaths 
recorded from cancer increases from year to year 
throughout the world, civilized and uncivilized, hu¬ 
man and animal. Taking England and Wales as an 
example, in 1889, on an average, the chance of a man 
above thirty-five years ultimately dying of cancer 



WANT OF KNOWLEDGE ADMITTED 


391 


was one in twenty-one, and for a woman above the 
same age one in twelve. The increase in the number 
of deaths recorded from cancer makes the corre¬ 
sponding chances to-day one in eleven for men and 
one in seven for women. Scarcely a family of large 
size escapes attack. There is no circle of acquaint¬ 
ances, no chance assemblage of persons at a table 
d'hote or in tube lift, but contains prospective 
victims. * * * 

“The widening of our knowledge of the occur¬ 
rence of cancer is only one example of how revived 
interest in mere observation has put an end to the era 
of unverified, and often unverifiable, speculation 
which characterized the last twenty years of the nine¬ 
teenth century, when exact methods of studying the 
clinical course, the anatomy, and the microscopical 
structure of tumors had reached their natural limita¬ 
tions. The study of cancer solely from the standpoint 
of its being an infective disease had yielded equivo¬ 
cal and self-contradictory results. Statistical meth¬ 
ods had become barren from want of data to work on. 
Xo point vulnerable to an attack in the rear by the 
experimental method could be discerned. * * *” 

After setting forth a multitude of very interest¬ 
ing facts and experiences, the peculiar feature of 
which is a complete destitution of positive findings, 
the author closes as follows: 

“A sudden revolution of all former views on the 
nature and treatment of cancer has not been effected. 
Much of the knowledge inherited can be utilized, 
much of it must be discarded. I have not dwelt on 
the initiative, the sacrifices, and the patient toil of 
my colleagues Bowen, Cramer, Clerke, Haaland, 
Murray, and Russell, nor on the enlightened and 
generous encouragement of the executive committee 



392 


CARCINOMA OR CANCER 


of the Imperial Cancer Research. It will be evident 
to all who read my colleagues’ papers in the report 
how much they have contributed to raise the British 
national investigations of cancer to the premier posi¬ 
tion among similar institutions abroad. I have not 
made reference to work by other distinguished in¬ 
vestigators, but full credit is given to them in the 
report itself. Slowly feeling the way from one cer¬ 
tain step to another has often simply meant being 
met by new and unsuspected difficulties. Each hith¬ 
erto unsuspected difficulty when overcome has, how¬ 
ever, brought us more nearly face to face with the 
realities of cancer genesis, cancer growth, and the 
natural means by which the body protects itself 
against them; they all are better comprehended and 
nearer solution to-day than ever before.” 

With reference to the causation of cancer, Dr. 
Arthur V. Meigs makes the following statements: 

“ Cancer and sarcoma, which a few years ago were 
very generally confounded, and which even now are 
not always easy to differentiate, have probably been 
as much studied as any pathological conditions, and 
up to a certain point are well understood. Their ap¬ 
pearances under many different circumstances have 
been carefully investigated, and so well are they 
known that it is often possible even to predict what 
will be their behavior in the future. When, how¬ 
ever, we come to discuss their causes, it must be con¬ 
fessed that so far as concerns final knowledge we 
are as yet in absolute ignorance. * * * 

“Although no authorities assert that it is known 
that malignant disease is contagious or infectious, yet 
it seems to be almost universally accepted that there 
is something of the nature of infection which is oper¬ 
ative in producing the metastases; that what is called 




FURTHER ADMISSIONS 


393 


the primary growth in some unknown way transfers 
a sufficient amount of the venom which is assumed to 
exist to distant parts and there reproduces itself. 
So far as concerns final knowledge of the cause of the 
metastatic process, we are no nearer to it than to an 
understanding of the origin of cancer and sarcoma, 
and the generally accepted assumption of the infec¬ 
tious origin of metastasis is only a convenient expla¬ 
nation of what in truth is as yet entirely beyond our 
comprehension. * * * 

“ Cancer is the result of riotous growth of epi¬ 
thelium and fibrous tissue; in soft cancers the 
epithelium preponderates, and in the hard varieties 
the amount of fibrous material is greatest. The 
growth takes place at the expense of the natural ele¬ 
ments, which are compressed and pushed aside or 
destroyed. Sarcoma is a similar process, but meso- 
blastic tissue plays the part that is taken by epithe¬ 
lium in cancer. * * *”—From The Origin of 

Disease, pp. 18, 19 and 20. By permission of J. B. 
Lippincott Company, Philadelphia. 

In the seventh edition of Dr. Flint’s Practice of 
Medicine the following remarks are made in regard 
to gastric cancer: 

“As to the primary cause of cancer, we are with¬ 
out any positive information. It is probable that 
the cachexia is secondary to the development of the 
cancer. The cachexia may be explained partly by 
certain facts pertaining to cancer in general, and in 
part by the local injury which the growth inflicts 
upon an organ of such vital importance as the 
stomach. The general considerations are—the rapid 
growth of the tumor; its withdrawal in a short time 
from the circulation of a large quantity of nutriment 
employed only for its own noxious growth and for no 



394 


CARCINOMA OR CANCER 


useful purpose; its destruction of healthy and useful 
tissues; the production of metastases, which for their 
nutrition and growth, from their number and size, 
make even greater claims upon the organism than 
the primary tumor; and often the occurrence of ex¬ 
hausting hemorrhages. ’ ’ Page 361. By permission 
of Lea Brothers & Co., Philadelphia. 

The various forms of Cancer have been investi¬ 
gated by the ablest and best equipped minds that the 
world has produced, and evidently without obtaining 
so much as a single item of conclusive information 
concerning its essential features, immediate or re¬ 
mote. Its morphology and clinical history have thus 
been made familiar to all, but the fact that the causes 
upon which this dread disease depends are still lin¬ 
gering in the domain of the unknown, appears in the 
cold type and between the lines of the various 'dis¬ 
quisitions and authoritative utterances which are to 
be found in the standard and periodical medical 
literature of the day and age in which we live. 

The Editor of the Journal of the American Medi¬ 
cal Association not long ago (February 21, 1903) re¬ 
ferred to this fact, and in the following terms: 

“ Notwithstanding all the work done in cancer 
etiology, one of the best European authorities, Pro¬ 
fessor Lubarsch of Posen, in Germany, a man who 
is thoroughly familiar with the whole subject and 
who has evidently spared no pains to get at all the 
recent publications, gives it as his conclusive opinion 
that we are as yet not in a position to say anything 
definite of the cause of malignant disease. He says 
that while it is clear that all forms of malignant neo¬ 
plasms resemble each other so much as to make it sure 
that if one is due to parasite the others are also, wie 



THE EPITHELIAL, STUMBLING-BLOCK 


395 


have as yet no sure evidences that a parasite is the 
actual causative agent. On the other hand, Profes¬ 
sor Lubarsch considers that there are groups of true 
neoplasms histologically different from carcinomata 
which yet share with them the destructive properties 
of giving metastases and causing cachexia, with re¬ 
gard to which, however, a parasitic cause is out of the 
question. Even in the epithelial group of the carci¬ 
nomata there are many special classes of tumors 
whose peculiarities would be very difficult to explain 
on this score. He adds that even if the etiologic role 
of parasites in the causation of the malignant disease 
is to he accepted, there are other causes that must 
be considered to have at least equal value. Chronic 
irritation seems, for instance, especially for many 
epithelial carcinomata, to be an almost indispensable 
predisposing condition. Without the preparation of 
soil, developed by frequently repeated irritation, the 
epitheliomata fail to make their appearance. The 
presence of embryonal or postembryonal cellular ma¬ 
terial included in certain parts of the tissue with a 
special tendency to take on an excessive formative 
disposition, seems to be another predisposing cause 
without which many neoplasms would not develop. In 
any theory of cancer etiology, then, these conditions 
and their effects will have to be taken into account 
quite as well as any supposed influence of parasites. 
As a matter of fact, it is not definitely settled yet 
whether cancer may not be originally a lack of vital¬ 
ity in the connective tissues rather than a surplus of 
vitality in the parenchymatous tissues. The normal 
state of the cellular tissues consists of an equilibrium 
of cellular forces so established that the constituents 
of the supporting tissues and the more specialized 
cells of the various organs have just enough resistive 
vitality to keep from interfering in the growth of one 



396 


CARCINOMA OR CANCER 


another, or, on the other hand, of permitting over¬ 
growth on the part of their neighbors. Weigert and 
Roux have insisted that neoplastic formation is usu¬ 
ally due, not to an acquired nisus formativus —a spe¬ 
cial new tendency to overgrowth—but to the disap¬ 
pearance of the resistive factors which have hitherto 
controlled the normal nisus formativus always pres¬ 
ent. A certain amount of neoformative power must 
always exist in order to keep any organ up to the 
standard necessary for function, and it is the failure 
of the connective tissue properly to limit this force 
that constitutes, under some circumstances, at least, 
the essence of malignancy. Once cells have acquired 
the habit of overgrowth, like microbes, they are prone 
to take on special virulence, and hence the occurrence 
of metastases and the development of cachexia be¬ 
cause of the over-secretion of toxic cellular prod¬ 
ucts/ *—By permission of the Editor. 

The facts presented in this editorial are worthy of 
careful consideration. In the first place, there is 
much significance in the admission that the attempt 
to show that cancer is a germ disease has proved to 
be utterly abortive. In the next place, there is still 
greater significance in the concession that ‘ 6 all forms 
of malignant neoplasms resemble each other so much 
as to make it sure that if one is due to a parasite the 
others are also,” for this is equivalent to saying that 
if they are not due to a parasite, they must be due to 
some other solitary cause, be this what it may, which 
is common to them all. This solitary cause has now 
been pointed out, and its name is pathogen. 

MYSTERY OF METASTASIS EXPLAINED. 

I do not hesitate to affirm that the plastic material 
that is found in malignant neoplasms, is neither more 



METASTASIS EXPLAINED 


397 


nor less than plastic pathogen; that the metastases 
that we see in the cancerous, are caused by the lodg¬ 
ment of plastic pathogen in the glands and capilla¬ 
ries ; that the cell-like elements of cancerous growths 
are differing forms of pathogen; that the chronic 
irritation is not a predisposing cause, but the effect 
produced by the thing that constitutes the predispo¬ 
nent, namely, pathogen—that irritation is not the 
producer, but the thing produced; that the things re¬ 
ferred to as embryonal and postembryonal material, 
are neither embryonal material, nor anything else 
of the kind, but that arch destroyer pathogen; that 
the formation of cancer is due not to a lack of vitality 
in the connective tissues, nor to surplus of vitality in 
the parenchymatous tissues, but to indigestion and 
the consequent presence in the circulation of that 
matchless obstruent, irritant and depressant, patho¬ 
gen—that the lodgement of partially digested ma¬ 
terial in the capillaries eventuates in the forcing of 
other material of the same kind from the blood ves¬ 
sels into the interstitial spaces, producing cancer or 
some other morbid growth, as above stated and ex¬ 
plained; that what the Editor of the Journal has 
termed, special tendency to take on an excessive for¬ 
mative disposition, is not another predisposing cause, 
as he has supposed, but an attempt on the part of the 
vital organism to fortify itself against the invasive 
tendencies and destructive possibilities of the fell 
destroyer, pathogen. It will also be seen that to 
ascribe the formation of cancer to a lack of vitality 
in the tissues, lacks a great deal of explaining, for 



398 


CARCINOMA OR CANCER 


this very thing of a lack of vitality has not been ex¬ 
plained. The notion, attributed to Weigert and 
Roux, that cancer is due to the disappearance of the 
resistive factors is only another way of saying that 
it is due to a lack of vitality, which means, upon the 
last analysis, a lack of digestive capacity. Nor is it 
necessary to point out that every other opinion re¬ 
ferred to in the Journal Editorial is as inconclusive 
as the foregoing, for this is a self-evident fact. 

A great many investigators have insisted and en¬ 
deavored to prove that cancer is a germ disease; but 
they have utterly failed to substantiate their conten¬ 
tion, the opinion of some of the more optimistic to 
the contrary notwithstanding. Others have contend¬ 
ed that those albuminous bodies of which the carci¬ 
nomata are chiefly composed are the “ seeds of the dis¬ 
ease,” and that the recurrence of cancer after the 
original growth has been extirpated is due to the lin¬ 
gering of one or more of these “seeds” or “cancer 
cells,” in the circulation or in some other part of the 
body. The latter hypothesis is more reasonable than 
the former, if the writer may be allowed to judge, and 
yet it has been controverted by one of the highest 
authorities, who bluntly affirms that: “There is no 
specific cancer cell.”—See Green’s Pathology and 
Morbid Anatomy, page 190, Edition of 1895. With 
equal propriety this author might have made the fur¬ 
ther assertion that there are no cancer germs. For 
there is no disputing the propositions: 1. That the 
slowness of the growth of a cancer presupposes the 
absence for the time being of all germs of decay. 



MISTAKEN IDENTITY 


399 


2. That those masses of albuminoid material of which 
the carcinomata are mostly composed are the essen¬ 
tial elements thereof. 3. That these elements, or cells, 
so-called, are composed of partially digested and 
therefore useless material; that they are for this rea¬ 
son forced out of the circulation, and that they take 
refuge, so to speak, in such tissues as may for any 
reason be least capable of resisting their encroach¬ 
ments, as already stated. 

According to authorities carcinoma is the most 
atypical as well as the most problematic of all morbid 
growths. They are composed, it is said, “of cells 
of the epithelial type grouped irregularly in the 
alveoli of a more or less dense fibroid stroma.’’ It 
is also said that the “epithelial type implies origin 
from epiblast or hypoblast and the absence of inter¬ 
cellular substance,” and that the “genesis of carci¬ 
noma involves that of the genesis of epithelium 
generally.” 

The student naturally wants to know why these 
so-called and supposedly important cells choose to 
lead an independent existence and to behave in such 
an objectionable fashion as that of assailing and 
destroying the body of which they are supposed to 
constitute an integral part, and yet, it appears that 
no authority has attempted to explain these matters. 
The fact is, authorities have been baffled for half-a- 
century by a case of mistaken identity, a mere re¬ 
semblance having impressed itself upon their minds 
as the real thing. The very fact that the morpho¬ 
logical elements of cancer are sufficiently irregular in 



400 


CARCINOMA OR CANCER 


size, shape and internal structure to induce medical 
writers to call cancers “the most atypical of all 
growths,” would long ago have led to the detection 
of the fallacy in question and the saving of many 
thousands of human lives, no doubt, had it not been 
for the authoritative glamour of the cell-theory. 

OF WHAT IS A CANCER COMPOSED ? 

Let others answer this great question as they may, 
I now affirm, and without the slightest fear of suc¬ 
cessful contradiction that every cancer that ever 

OCCURRED IN THE ENTIRE HISTORY OF THE WORLD, WAS 
COMPOSED OF PARTIALLY DIGESTED FIBROUS TISSUE, 
CELLULOSE, WOODY-FIBRE, OR DENATURIZED ALBUMIN— 

materials that the individual, man or brute, could 
not for any reason reduce to peptone or its 
equivalent. In short, cancers owe their origin to the 
imperfect elaboration of the albuminoids. 

Be it carefully noted that I use the term albumi¬ 
noids in a restricted sense, referring to those sub¬ 
stances which contain a large percentage of cellulose, 
lignin and fibrous tissue—substances which are so re¬ 
fractory that the average human stomach can do 
nothing more than reduce them to that albumin-like 
material which is known to science as hemialbumose, 
serum albumin and animal protoplasm, and to the 
writer as pathogen. 

The impression has long existed in professional 
circles that flesh-eating is largely responsible for the 
fearful havoc that cancer is making, and yet au- 




MYSTERIOUS COMPLICATIONS EXPLAINED 


403 


thorities have not furnished so much as a fairly ac¬ 
ceptable opinion regarding the way in which or the 
conditions under which flesh-eating gives rise to 
cancer. But this mystery has at last been solved. 

INCIDENTAL DEVELOPMENTS. 

Moreover, it has only recently begun to dawn upon 
medical observers that meat-eating has something to 
do with the production of two other highly proble¬ 
matic diseases—namely, Heart disease, and Bright’s 
disease. For instance, Hr. William H. Guilfoy pub¬ 
lished in the Medical Record (January 25, 1908) an 
article in which he declares that workmen coming 
from the flesh-eating countries show the highest per¬ 
centage for cancer, heart disease and chronic Bright’s 
disease. He supports his contention by the aid of the 
following table of deaths per one hundred thousand 
of four flesh-eating nations: 

Chronic 
Heart Bright’s 
Cancer. Disease. Disease. 


“Irish . 166.6 381.2 410. 

German. 151.9 231.5 212.5 

English . 140. 207. 209. 

Bohemian . 246. 237. 255.7” 


Dr. Guilfoy attributes this fearful mortality, not 
to flesh-eating, per se, but to the “ eating of inferior 
and-diseased meats.” While Dr. Guilfoy’s opinion 
is very plausible it is an indisputable proposition that 
the soundest meats to be had are exceedingly liable to 
produce cancer, for they possess a very large per- 







CARCINOMA OR CANCER 


402 


centage of material which is almost if not entirely 
beyond the digestive capacity of the human stomach. 
Reference is made to the tough, insipid, fibrous 
framework of flesh—the material, for instance, that 
remains after a piece of meat has been suspended in 
running water for a few days. This material cannot 
be completely digested, and if the spleen should for 
any reason fail to pave the way for its elimination by 
reducing it to fibrinogen, as explained in the chapter 
on the function of the spleen, it will remain in the 
body and be likely to assume the shape and virulence 
of the so-called cancer cells. The reader can satisfy 
himself regarding the logic and trustworthiness of 
this proposition by trying the experiment above re¬ 
ferred to, that of suspending a piece of meat in a 
swift current of water for a few days. For the 
residuum will be so very dense, stringy and insipid 
that every lingering doubt, as to the correctness of 
the theory now advanced, regarding the origin of 
cancerous material, will vanish like the darkness be¬ 
fore the rising sun. By supplementing this experi¬ 
ment with an unbiased examination of all the facts 
and circumstances connected with the on-coming and 
progression of cancerous growths, it will be made as 
clearly apparent as the sun at meridian height that 
the so-called cancer cell is not a cell, but a particle of 
partially digested material—fibroid tissue, or lignin, 
or cellulose. 

Verily, there is no lack of evidence of the truth 
of the proposition that partially digested fibrous 
tissue, lignin and cellulose gives rise to those hitherto 



A SIGNIFICANT FACT 


403 


mysterious particles of albuminoid material that go 
to make up a cancerous growth. 

On page 362, Flint’s Practice of Medicine, a very 
significant fact is referred to but not explained. Ref¬ 
erence is made to the following statements regarding 
the absence of hydrochloric acid in gastric carcinoma: 

“ Considerable interest attaches to the discovery 
by Yon den Veldon that hydrochloric acid is habit¬ 
ually absent from the stomach in cases of gastric dila¬ 
tation due to cancer. (The claim that hydrochloric 
acid in a free state is, as a rule, persistently absent 
from the gastric secretions in cases of cancer of the 
stomach has been abundantly verified. The greatest 
amount of clinical evidence in support of this propo¬ 
sition has been furnished by Riegel. This observer 
studied 16 cases of cancer of the stomach, in 5 of 
which the diagnosis was confirmed by an autopsy. 
In these 5 cases he made 154 analyses of the contents 
of the stomach with a digestive test and quantitative 
estimate of the amount of acid present. In none of 
these numerous analyses was free HC1 found, and 
in no instance did the filtrate of the stomach-contents 
possess the power of digesting albumen. In 8 of the 
remaining 11 cases 120 analyses failed to find either 
HC1 or digestive power in the gastric juice. In the 
following 3 there were found at first a very weak 
HC1 reaction and feeble digestive power. They were 
therefore regarded as cases of incipient carcinoma. 
Later, free acid was no longer found. From these 
observations Riegel concludes that in the gastric juice 
of a cancerous stomach, as a rule, both free HC1 and 
digestive power are absent, and that, on the other 
hand, if in any case free HC1 and normal digestive 
power are present, carcinoma may be excluded, in 
spite of the usual symptoms of that disease.”—By 



404 


CARCINOMA OR CANCER 


permission of Lea Brothers & Company, Phila¬ 
delphia. 

Now if the reader will hear in mind the fact that 
hydrochloric acid is a necessary factor in gastric 
digestion, it will be an easy matter for him to see the 
feasibility of the proposition that cancer owes its 
origin and most of its subsequent history to gastric 
disease, and that the so-called cancer cells are nothing 
more nor less than particles of partially digested fib¬ 
rous tissue, lignin and cellulose—materials that the 
spleen could not prepare for elimination by convert¬ 
ing them into fibrinogen. The reader will also per¬ 
ceive that the presence of such material in the circula¬ 
tion is at the bottom of the metastases, or blockings 
of the glands and vessels, and that the recurrence of 
cancer after it has been extirpated is due not simply 
to the leaving of cancer cells in the body, as we have 
thus far supposed, but for the most part to the con¬ 
tinuation of the gastric disorder and the consequent 
production from day to day and from year to year 
of cancerous material—that extremely viscid and al¬ 
most imperishable form of pathogen which is evolved 
from the fibrous tissue of meats, the cellulose of 
grains and the lignin, or wood-fibre, of the coarser 
vegetables. 

With the view of clearing up one or two more ob¬ 
scure points regarding the nature, cause and appear¬ 
ances of this dread disease, attention is invited to the 
following Editorial, which appeared in the Medical 
Record, Dec. 1, 1906. 



THE CANCER CACHEXIA PROBLEM 


405 


"the nature of cancer and of cancerous 
cachexia/'" 

"As in the case of rheumatism, the true nature of 
cancer is still so uncertain that it offers wide oppor¬ 
tunities to investigators for original research. The 
number of theories will continue to be legion until a 
clearer knowledge of the subject is gained. In La 
Presse Medicale , Nov. 3,1906, Debove reviews several 
of these theories which are now in vogue. He first 
presents certain facts: Cancer consists of the devel¬ 
opment of a tumor which has a tendency, so to speak, 
to increase indefinitely, to recur after removal and to 
form metastases; that is to say, tumors called second¬ 
ary occur in the various organs. The structure of 
these tumors resembles that of the primary tumor. 
This propagation takes place by the route of lym¬ 
phatics or of the blood-vessels. The theory first dis¬ 
cussed by the writer is that of diathesis. By this is 
meant a congenital or acquired predisposition by 
which, under the influence of diverse causes, an indi¬ 
vidual may show identical reactions. As an example 
of this theory the following illustration is offered: 
After a bronchitis an individual with a tuberculous 
diathesis develops pulmonary phthisis, whereas an 
individual with the same diathesis after a contusion 
of the hip develops a coxalgia, and still another after 
gonorrhea develops a tuberculous orchitis. Although 
to-day the influence of the soil is admitted, another 
factor is necessary for the development of the disease, 
namely, the introduction of the specific microbe of 
the malady. This theory leaves us with an unsolved 
problem—in what does a diathesis consist? Another 
theory discussed is the one which looks to some para¬ 
site as the cause of the disease. Although a specific 
parasite has not yet been demonstrated, Debove de- 



406 


CARCINOMA OR CANCER 


dares that so far as he is concerned this fact is not the 
greatest objection to the parasitic theory for there 
are a number of affections which are without doubt 
of parasitic origin, although the parasites have not 
yet been demonstrated. Th^ greatest objection, he 
thinks, to this theory is the resemblance of the second¬ 
ary growths to the primary focus. As a striking ex¬ 
ample, he mentions metastases in the case of melan¬ 
otic carcinoma. These metastases show elements 
analogous to those of the tissues in which the primary 
tumor develops. The advocates of this theory believe 
in the atypical growth of cells. Debove suggests that 
carcinoma may be considered as a sort of parasitic 
affection, in which the parasites are cells derived 
from normal cells. The general condition called can¬ 
cerous cachexia is due to the difficulty experienced by 
certain affected organs in performing their func¬ 
tions.”—By permission of the publishers. 

BOTH KNOWN AND UNKNOWN. 

1STow, I would respectfully submit that the essen¬ 
tial element of cancer is both well-known and wholly 
unknown to the medical world. It is well-known as a 
“giant cell,” or cell-like particle of some kind, but 
unknown as a product of disordered digestion. 

This proposition finds substantiation in a multi¬ 
tude of facts and observations most of which are well- 
known. Reference is made in particular to the unde¬ 
niable if not well-known fact, that in every case of 
cancer the faucial surfaces are swollen, inflamed and 
coated with a catarrhal transudate, which facts 
plainly imply that similar conditions exist further 
down the alimentary tract, that is, in the stomach; 



CANCER CACHEXIA EXPLAINED 


407 


in other words, there is no lack of evidence of the ex¬ 
istence of gastritis and its practically invariable at¬ 
tendant, gastric catarrh. It is an easy matter to see 
that whenever the gastric walls become coated with 
a thick, slimy transudate, the stomata, or little 
mouths, of the peptic glands will be so completely 
sealed up that they will not be able to empty their 
products—the digestive juices—into the stomach. 
Here, then, is a perfectly logical explanation of two 
well-known and thus far unexplained conditions in 
carcinoma; first, that there is a deficiency in the 
supply of pepsin; second, that there is a practically 
complete want of hydrochloric acid—an element of 
the gastric secretion which is absolutely requisite to 
the digestion of such refractory constituents of the 
ingesta as the fibrous tissues of flesh-foods, the cor¬ 
tical portion of grains and the ligneous elements, or 
woody fibre of the coarser vegetables. 

In short, it is a perfectly logical proposition that 
the disabled stomach can only partially digest the 
albuminoids and that this illy-prepared material 
gives rise to those death-dealing foreign bodies which 
are called cancer cells. 

I do not hesitate to affirm that every cancer that 
ever occurred in the entire history of the world was 
the outcome of what may be termed disguised dys¬ 
pepsia —of a condition in which the digestive process 
is carried far enough to prevent the ingesta from fer¬ 
menting, but not far enough to fit the most compact 
elements thereof—lignin, cellulose and fibrous tissue 
—for vital uses. 



408 


CARCINOMA OR CANCER 


I would respectfully submit that our authorities 
have been so completely misled by the second subdivi¬ 
sion of the cell-theory that they have been stumbling 
over the “true nature of cancer’’ for half a century 
without being able to see it. As with the “thimble 
riggers” ball, so with the thing that constitutes the 
cause of cancer; they see it, and then again they do 
not see it. They see that cancerous growths are com¬ 
posed of cell-like bodies, but the legerdemain of a 
false theory has prevented them from realizing, as 
they certainly should, that the cell-shaped particles 
they see in cancer are not cells, and that cancer is 
attributable not to “cellular anarchy,” but to gas¬ 
tric anarchy. I affirm and without the slightest fear 
of successful contradiction, that cancer cells, so- 
called, are nothing more nor less than particles of 
partially liquefied and subsequently inspissated cel¬ 
lulose, lignin and fibrous tissue—materials which 
entered the circulation in advance of complete pepto¬ 
nization, and which were sufficiently abundant to 
completely baffle the splenic and hepatic laboratories. 
In short, cancer is a mass of pathogen and owes its 
origin to deranged stomach, liver and spleen. 

CANCER CHACHEXIA EXPLAINED. 

In the light of the doctrine of pathogenosis it is 
perfectly plain; first, that concentrated pathogen is 
broken in its passage through the trabeculae of the 
spleen into cell-like particles; second, that the spleen 
and liver are not able to reduce and dispose of these 
materials; third, that the system secures temporary 



CANCER PIGMENTATION EXPLAINED 


409 


relief by pushing these unwelcome intruders out of 
the blood-vessels; fourth, that in so doing choice is 
made, as it were, of those parts which are able to 
offer but little resistance; fifth, that those confessedly 
obscure enlargements of the lymph-nodes which are 
called metastases are purely referable to pathogen— 
that this viscid material becomes impacted in the 
sieve-like trabeculae; sixth, that both the melanotic 
element of the cancerous growth and that peculiar 
external appearance which is called the “cachexia” 
are attributable to pathogenic obstruction of the 
hepatic glands and the consequent inability of the 
liver to dispose of the bile—that the imprisoned bile 
permeates the circulating system, wends its way into 
the cancerous growth, infiltrates the skin, and grad¬ 
ually decays, producing the dark pigment of the can¬ 
cer and that peculiar cast of the skin which is termed 
the “cancer cachexia.’’ 

For the sake of emphasis I repeat that Cancer 
owes its livid appearance and much of its acrimony 
to the bile pigment (putrid bile) and other excremen- 
titious materials which are deposited along with the 
so-called cancer-cells; that the accumulation of these 
waste products is due to pathogenic obstruction of 
their respective outlets; that the supervening inflam¬ 
mation and hyperplasia are due to the irritation that 
is superinduced by the presence in the tissues of a 
viscid, coagulable and essentially insoluble substance 
—that tissue-destroying and death-dealing foreign 
body which has been denominated pathogen; that the 
recurrence of cancer after operation is due not to 



410 


CARCINOMA OR CANCER 


the leaving of cancer-cells in the body, but to the con¬ 
tinuation of the gastric disorders on which the pro¬ 
duction of pathogen depends; that the output of a 
cancerous sore is not simply the debris of decom¬ 
posing tissues, but is mostly composed of plastic 
pathogen and such waste products as had been re¬ 
tained in the circulation, the existing solution of con¬ 
tinuity affording an opportunity for their escape, 
and that the patient perishes not simply or even 
mainly in consequence of the “drain upon the sys¬ 
tem,’ ? as some authorities have supposed, but from 
the combined effects of indigestion, irritation, in¬ 
flammation, stagnation and auto-intoxication, the 
attempts of both nature and art to relieve him having 
been in vain. 

EXPERIMENTAL DIFFICULTIES EXPLAINED. 

The fact that the inoculation of animals with can¬ 
cer substance results in the development of a cancer¬ 
like growth is explainable on the not unreasonable 
assumption that whenever the viscid cancerous ma¬ 
terial is introduced into the circulating system it be¬ 
comes larger in consequence of the adhesion thereto 
of the so-called serum albumen that is floating in the 
blood of the living creatures—material that could not 
be properly digested and which is in all ordinary cir¬ 
cumstances disposed of by being converted into 
fibrinogen and then into bile, as stated in the eighth 
chapter of this volume. 

The fact that “sometimes only one mouse in a hun¬ 
dred can be inoculated” is explainable on the not un- 



THE KEY TO CANCER CAUSATION 


411 


reasonable hypothesis that the immune animal is 
sufficiently vigorous to enable it to reduce the in¬ 
jected material to that eliminable material called bile. 

The fact that a small percentage of the animals ex¬ 
perimented upon prove to be susceptible, may be 
reasonably explained by assuming that all such are 
in an unhealthy condition—carrying so much serum 
albumen in their blood that the addition thereto of the 
cancerous material makes it impossible for their or¬ 
gans to meet the demands of the situation. 

The fact that many cancerous growths are painless 
until they begin to break down is due, no doubt, to 
the undeniable circumstance that they are composed 
not of living cells of anarchistic proclivities, as we 
have heretofore supposed, but of that lifeless ma¬ 
terial that owes its origin to imperfect digestion of 
the more concentrated elements of the ingesta— 
namely, pathogen. The fact that the breaking down 
of such growths is attended by pain is explainable on 
the not unreasonable hypothesis that the tissues in 
which the offending material is embedded becomes in¬ 
volved in the disintegrating process, the effects being 
the inflammation and nervous irritation of which 
pain is the natural exponent. 

In short, I can but believe that the key to the mys¬ 
teries of carcinosis has at last been discovered, and 
that it resides in the fact of a disordered digestion. 

Let the various facts be carefully considered and 
this line of thought be pursued to its legitimate con¬ 
clusion, and it will be as clear as the sun at noon-tide, 



412 


CARCINOMA OR CANCER 


that carcinoma, as well as the other diseases above 
referred to, begins and ends with the imperfect elab¬ 
oration of the food —that the faulty tvork done in 
the gastric laboratory is responsible for both the 
cancerous growth and nearly the whole of that vast 
output of putrescent and malodorous material that 
is discharged in consequence of the breaking down 
of these obnoxious excrescences upon the body vital. 

In short, carcinosis is pathogencsis. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

HEART DISEASE AND ITS COMPLICATIONS. 

The various forms of heart disease from those of 
a merely functional character on up to those of an 
organic nature are not only fearfully prevalent but 
are becoming more and more so as time passes. Car¬ 
diac Dilation, Valvular Insufficiency and Cerebral 
Hemorrhage are the elements of a combination which 
is not only fearfully prevalent, but decidedly refrac¬ 
tory and problematic, as well. To say that these 
disorders have completely baffled the professional 
pathologists is but to state the naked truth. All 
authorities realize that “high blood-pressure” is the 
immediate cause of these troubles, but none of them 
have succeeded in finding out the more remote factor, 
or cause of this cause. In other words, no authority 
has discovered the thing that gives rise to that fearful 
blood-pressure which causes the valves to leak, the 
walls of the heart to dilate, and the cerebral vessels 
to burst asunder. 

Many theories have been advanced in the attempt 
to account for the causation of these dread diseases, 
and yet we are to all appearances as far from a sat¬ 
isfactory solution of these great problems as we ever 
were, the existing literature of the medical world 
being the criterion. The points at which these dis¬ 
orders are localized, the one being in the brain and 
the other in the heart, are so remotely situated that 

413 


414 


HEART DISEASES AND COMPLICATIONS 


it has been inferred, it would seem, that they (the 
diseases in question) have no etiological relation¬ 
ship, and yet there are good reasons for the conclu¬ 
sion that they are very closely related. In short, 
there are the best of reasons for the assumption that 
Cerebral Hemorrhage and Hypertrophy of the Heart 
are dependent upon one and the same cause. To this 
must be added the further fact that there has seemed 
to be no relationship subsisting between Heart dis¬ 
ease and Bright’s disease—a fact which is attributa¬ 
ble, in common with that already mentioned, to the 
extreme remoteness and utter dissimilarity of the 
affected organs. 

An Editorial which recently appeared in the lead¬ 
ing Medical Journal of this country may be taken as 
evidence to the effect that it is beginning to dawn 
upon the great leaders of the medical world that 
there must be a connection of some sort between 
Hypertrophy of the Heart and Interstitial Nephri¬ 
tis, commonly called Bright’s Disease. And since the 
facts therein presented will not only make plain the 
existing confusion, but pave the way for the work I 
have in hand, I will venture to quote the major por¬ 
tion of said editorial: 

“HEART HYPERTROPHY AND NEPHRITIS.” 

“ Heart hypertrophy in nephritis seems always to 
offer problems that defy the pathologist, in spite of 
the abundant material that is always at hand for his 
study. Not only do we lack definite knowledge of 
the cause of the increased blood pressure which leads 



THE HEART HYPERTROPHY PUZZLE 


415 


to the hypertrophy, but we have no consistent data as 
to just what sort of anatomic changes must be present 
in the kidney in order that heart hypertrophy may 
result. While the classical text-book dogma that 
parenchymatous nephritis leads to edema without 
heart hypertrophy and that interstitial nephritis 
leads to hypertrophy with little or no edema is cor¬ 
rect in a considerable proportion of cases, yet the 
exceptions are so abundant as to make the rule of 
little value in explaining the relation of renal 
changes to heart hypertrophy. Hypertrophy accom¬ 
panying typical parenchymatous nephritis is by no 
means rare, while even more common is the oc¬ 
currence of advanced interstitial changes without 
hypertrophy/’ * * * 

“One hypothesis which has found considerable 
favor is that the degree of cardiac enlargement de¬ 
pends on the extent to which the glomeruli are in¬ 
volved, but Jores was unable to confirm this. It is, 
indeed, a striking fact that in amyloid kidneys, in 
which the glomeruli are most extensively involved, 
hypertrophy is almost invariably absent or slight, 
even when the amyloid changes are accompanied by 
a considerable degree of connective tissue increase 
and contraction. In the secondarily contracted kid¬ 
ney glomerular fibrosis is usually marked, although 
heart hypertrophy is commonly slight or lacking. 
Equally inconstant is the relation between the amount 
of destruction of parenchymatous tissue and the 
cardiac involvement. 

“The total failure to correlate in any constant 
and definite way the anatomic changes in the kidney 
with the heart hypertrophy leads only to the assump¬ 
tion that the cause of the increased blood pressure 
must be formed or accumulated independently of 
the structural alterations in the kidney, and, there- 



416 


HEART DISEASES AND COMPLICATIONS 


fore, presumably outside the kidney. It may well 
be that the substances which are abnormally present 
in the blood in nephritis and which cause the in¬ 
creased blood pressure are quite distinct from the 
poisons that cause the kidney changes, and these both 
may be quite different again from the poison or 
poisons that cause uremia; such a view is at least in 
agreement with the manifest lack of correspondence 
in the relative intensity of these three features in 
cases of interstitial nephritis.”—From the Journal 
of the American Medical Association for Feb. 13, 
1909. By permission of the publishers. 

A NATURAL BUT UNFORTUNATE MISTAKE. 

Now I would respectfully submit that the etiolo- 
gists have been blinded and defeated by the appar¬ 
ently correct but utterly incorrect assumption that 
serum albumin is a normal and essential element of 
the blood. It is an undeniable fact that the albumin 
discharged from the kidneys in the progress of al¬ 
buminuria and nephritis is nothing more nor less 
than pathogen and that this is responsible for the 
high blood-pressure that obtains in cerebral hem¬ 
orrhage and the various heart troubles in question. 
The high blood-pressure in question is due to the fol¬ 
lowing combination of circumstances: First, the 
passage of digested and partially digested materials 
into the circulation is almost constantly going on, 
while the discharge of waste matter is seriously im¬ 
peded; second, the impediment is serum albumin, 
which blocks the glands and capillaries on which 
elimination depends—a proposition the truth of 



CARDIAC DILATATION EXPLAINED 


417 


which is evinced by the imperfect action of the skin, 
liver and bowels and the more especially by the low 
specific gravity of the urine; third, in consequence of 
a continuation of this state of things a high degree of 
plethora, or over-fulness of the circulating system, 
is established—which means not only high blood- 
pressure, but extreme tension in the vaso-motor nerv¬ 
ous system; fourth, the blood is rendered so thick and 
viscid by the pathogen (serum albumin) and so im¬ 
pure by the retained waste matter that it is practi¬ 
cally impossible for the heart to propel it into and 
through the peripheral capillaries; fifth, the blood, 
being unable to penetrate the natural channels to a 
sufficient extent, recedes to internal regions, where 
the vessels are larger and more patulous; sixth, that 
this crowding of the blood into the heart and central 
vessels is bound to produce such changes as aneurism 
of the aorta, dilatation of the heart and weakening of 
the cardiac valves; seventh, that the time eventually 
comes in most cases when the energies on which the 
vasomotor tension depends are exhausted, in 
which event there will be a rush of blood from the 
periphery inward (due largely to atmospheric pres¬ 
sure) which will reveal the weakest spot—that if 
this be in the heart, this organ will be paralyzed or 
ruptured (according to the vehemence of the inflow¬ 
ing current) ; or, if the weak place is located in the 
brain, the cerebral vessels will be forced to let slip 
their contents, as in extravasation, or burst asunder 
as in the suddenly fatal cases of cerebral hemorrhage. 

In short, it has come to be a practically self- 



418 


HEART DISEASES AND COMPLICATIONS 


evident fact that the troubles in question, from the 
low specific gravity of the urine to cardiac paresis, 
and from this to cerebral hemorrhage and the wreck¬ 
age of the kidneys and the consequent phenomena 
of uraemic poisoning, are one and all, attributable to 
gastric troubles and the consequent accumulation of 
plastic pathogen in the circulating system. 

The most frequent of the troubles in question is, 
I believe, dilatation, or what is erroneously termed 
“ compensatory hypertrophy. That the change thus 
characterized is not a true hypertrophy is a propo¬ 
sition set forth and ably argued by one of the closest 
and most experienced observers of modern times, 
Dr. Arthur V. Meigs. Among the many passages to 
this effect to be found in his valuable work is the 
following: 

“The most important conclusion I have reached is 
that “compensatory hypertrophy of the heart/’ as it 
is ordinarily described and understood, has no ex¬ 
istence. All hypertrophied hearts are degenerated 
and weakened. * * * It has been taught and almost 
universally accepted that regurgitation, which throws 
extra work upon the walls of the cavity of the heart 
which is behind the leaking valve, is invariably an¬ 
swered by nature by an increase of the muscle, that 
the walls of the cavity thicken and grow in strength, 
that hypertrophy results, and that it is compensatory! 
It is my belief, founded on observation, that regurgi¬ 
tation does not always cause hypertrophy. If this 
can be shown to be true, the theories in regard to com¬ 
pensation become untenable. The doctrine that 
muscles increase when called on to perform severe 
labor has been pushed much further than is justified 



MORE MYSTERIES UNRAVELED 


419 


by the facts. * * * Nor is any allowance made for the 
fact that hypertrophy of the heart occurs only in the 
diseased. * * * It has never been demonstrated that 
the hypertrophied heart pumps with increased force, 
or that the pressure within the heart is raised.”— 
The Origin of Disease, pp. 84 and 85, by permission 
of the publishers, J. B. Lippincott Company, Phila¬ 
delphia and London. 

In the same work reference is made to many 
troubles which are very similar in character to dila¬ 
tation of the heart and which can only be explained 
by the doctrine that I am advancing—namely, 
“vacuolation,” or “hollowing of the muscle fibres”; 
“aneurism of the arteries,” “varicose veins,” and 
‘ < cystic disease ’ ’ of the kidneys, liver and spleen. 

Dr. Meigs, in common with all other authors of 
whom I have any knowledge, has failed to explain 
these distortions of the vital structures and wreck¬ 
age of the tissues. This failure is not at all surpris¬ 
ing, for it is absolutely impossible to account for such 
changes as these in the absence of a knowledge of 
pathogen and its obstructive, destructive and dis¬ 
torting possibilities. But with this information well 
in mind it is easily seen that it is not “ regurgitation, ” 
but pathogenic obstruction of the peripheral vessels 
that “throws extra work” upon the heart. It will 
also be easy to perceive that whenever the circulation 
is laden with thickened pathogen the heart must of 
necessity suffer in one or all of three ways; first, 
from the increased tax upon its energies, it being ex¬ 
ceedingly difficult to force pathogen-laden blood to 
and through capillaries so far away from the pul- 



420 


HEART DISEASES AND COMPLICATIONS 


sating organ as those of the periphery; second, from 
the besmearing of the walls of its capillaries with 
pathogen, which makes it impossible for the cardiac 
structures to obtain the requisite nutriment; third, 
the cells made empty by this cutting-off of supplies 
become elongated, the resulting effects being dila¬ 
tation of the auricles, or of the ventricles, or the re¬ 
laxation of the valves and a corresponding leakage, 
or regurgitation. In short, in heart disease, the blood 
becomes so over-burdened with pathogen that it can¬ 
not be driven to such remote regions as the surface 
and extremities and must therefore recoil, or crowd 
backward, into the heart and central vessels, produc¬ 
ing as already stated, dilatations in the heart, aneu¬ 
risms in the arteries, and varices in the veins. 

Nor is it probable that we shall find a more sat¬ 
isfactory explanation of these diseases and complica¬ 
tions than that which has now been briefly outlined. 
It is needless to say that the very brevity of the prop¬ 
osition is reassuring; for scientific discoveries sim¬ 
plify as well as explain the phenomena to which they 
refer. 

The world has but a very slight conception of the 
extent to which dilatation of the heart and distortion 
of the blood vessels prevail at the present time. 



CHAPTER XXXII. , 

CYSTIC DISEASE. 

Cystic Disease is another morbid phenomenon 
referred to at considerable length in Dr. Meig’s work, 
and which has not been so much as fairly explained 
by any authority. The fact is, an explanation of it 
can only be made by some such doctrine as that which 
I am now advancing and endeavoring to substantiate. 
With the explanations already given well in mind 
the reader will readily perceive that the cysts in the 
liver, spleen and kidneys described and illustrated by 
Dr. Meigs are produced in consequence of; first, the 
starvation superinduced by pathogenic interference 
with nutrition; second, the blocking of the capillaries 
of the part affected; third, the incarceration of fluid 
of some sort between the obstructed area and the on¬ 
coming stream of blood or lymph, as the case may be, 
the pressure thus brought to bear upon the poorly 
nourished and greatly relaxed tissues being amply 
sufficient to produce that bulging or enlargement of 
the vessels to which the term “cyst” has been applied. 

The facts set forth in Dr. Meig’s work constitute 
a most execellent exemplification of the destructive 
possibilities of that incomparable disturber of the 
vital functions that I am trying to point out. 

Examine any work on etiology or pathology and 
you will find abundant evidence of the correctness of 
the proposition that morbid processes in general and 

421 


422 


CYSTIC DISEASES ELUCIDATED 


cystic diseases in particular are dependent upon the 
obstructive action and vessel-distorting capabilities 
of pathogen, and that by reason of their want of 
knowledge of the nature, origin and modus operandi 
of the offending material, medical writers of all ages 
have been practically compelled to indulge in the 
desperate alternative of trying to explain one disease 
by referring it to some other disorder which has not 
been explained. 



CHAPTEB XXXIII. 

SCORBUTUS OR SCURVY. 

Scurvey has been set down by authorities as hav¬ 
ing been pre-eminently destructive to army and navy 
life, attacking entire garrisons and proving destruc¬ 
tive in a large percentage of cases. 

It has long been known that a radical change of 
the diet, in such cases, involving the substitution of 
fresh vegetables for the standard ration of meats and 
cereal products, is a necessary measure. But neither 
the cause of the trouble nor the reason why this 
change of diet gives relief can be found in the litera¬ 
ture of the subject. One of the highest authorities 
(Flint) states that: 

“It is probable that the primary and essential 
morbid changes relate to the blood. Our present 
knowledge, however, does not enable us to state in 
what consist the changes peculiar to the disease.’’ 

In a word, Scurvy has proved to be another ap¬ 
parently inexplicable mystery. The extravasation 
of the blood beneath the skin; the fungous appear¬ 
ance of the gums; the loosening and falling out of the 
teeth; the presence of blood serum in the joints; the 
ruin wrought in the osseous system; the hemorrhages 
in the nostrils, the mouth, the vagina and the intesti¬ 
nal canal, together with many other facts have for 
centuries baffled all investigation and defied all un¬ 
derstanding. But all this is made intelligible by the 

423 


424 


SCORBUTUS OR SCURVY 


theory that at the various points at which the disease 
makes its appearance pathogen has blocked the capil¬ 
laries and that blood is driven against the obstruction 
with sufficient force to cause a leakage to occur in the 
previously starved and debilitated vessels, the ag¬ 
gregate effect being that hemorrhagic condition 
which is called scurvy. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

IMPOTENCE AND STERILITY. 

Procreation is the most important of the funda¬ 
mental instincts. The happiness as well as the per¬ 
petuity of the race depends upon the exercise of the 
reproductive faculties. The Creator has displayed 
greater prodigality, if I may so express it, in pro¬ 
viding for the reproduction of plants and animals 
than He has in any other department of His broad 
domain. For, in addition to a prodigality of instinc¬ 
tive impulses is the fact that there are, as a rule, 
hundreds if not thousands of seeds, ova and sperma- 
toza produced when and where one comes to the 
point of fruition. The only exceptions to the rule 
are found in the ranks of civilization. The reason 
for the wide-spread prevalence of masculine and 
feminine impotency has never been adequately ex¬ 
plained. But it is a well demonstrated fact that both 
the cause of the trouble and the means for the re¬ 
moval thereof have been added to the general fund of 
medical information. 

Impotency is another problem which finds incon¬ 
testable explanation in the doctrine of pathogenosis. 
It is a well-known fact that erections are dependent 
upon the filling of the corpora cavernosa with blood, 
and that this fluid can only find its way into the in¬ 
terior of these structures by passing through the deli¬ 
cate capillary terminals of a scarcely less delicate sys- 

425 


426 


IMPOTENCE AND STERILITY 


tem of spiral shaped arterioles which have their 
origin in the internal pudic artery—namely, the 
helicene. In view of the extreme delicacy of these 
vessels and of the viscidity of pathogen, it is perfectly 
evident that pathogen-laden blood will not be able to 
enter the corpora cavernosa, the results being im¬ 
potence and sterility. It will also be seen that steril¬ 
ity in the female is due to pathogenic occlusion of the 
ovarian capillaries, or of the fallopian tubes. 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

DIABETES MELLITTJS. 

Diabetes Mellitus has long occupied a prominent 
place in the category of obscure and supposedly in¬ 
curable diseases. The fact that this disease has in¬ 
creased 1459 per cent, in the last fifty years and that 
it is still increasing at a fearful and constantly in¬ 
creasing rate is one of the most puzzling circum¬ 
stances of our day and age, and the more especially 
because its recruits, so to speak, are drawn almost 
entirely from the ranks of the strong and well- 
developed, men and women of fine physique and ex¬ 
emplary habits. 

The best talent known to the annals of medical 
investigation have spared neither time nor money 
in the attempt to unravel its mysteries and meet its 
requirements. Not the least of the mysteries in ques¬ 
tion resides in the fact that the presence of sugar in 
the urine exists long before there is any symptom 
of renal inflammation. 

The truth of this observation and of the proposi¬ 
tion that our latest and best authorities are still at 
sea with regard to both the seat of the primary le¬ 
sion and the nature of the trouble, will be seen by 
reading the printed pages and between the lines of 
their writings. In a paper, for example, which was 
read by Prof. Arthur B. Elliot in the hearing of the 
1903 session of the American Medical Association, 

427 


428 


DIABETES MELLITUS 


and printed at the instance of the executive commit¬ 
tee, in the Journal of the Association (August 8th, 
1903), the following facts are set forth and as usual 
without explanation, which leaves the practitioner to 
wrestle with the long existent and desperate alterna¬ 
tive of settling every such question as best he can: 

“ Among the secondary tissue degenerations which 
result from diabetes none is so frequent as lesional 
changes in the kidneys. No extensive autopsy re¬ 
ports are at hand to establish the relative frequency 
of renal changes in diabetes, but such as are forth¬ 
coming demonstrate in a striking manner the associa¬ 
tion. Thus out of Greisinger’s 64 autopsies, renal 
alterations were found in 32. In the main, the 
changes were degenerative in character, either fatty 
or hyperplastic. Seegen found such changes in 20 out 
of 30 cases brought to autopsy, and Dickinson in 25 
out of 27. No special form of renal defect in dia¬ 
betes can as yet be looked on as typical, the changes 
being variable in kind and degree, although almost 
always present. The form which they assume will 
depend on the duration and intensity of the irrita¬ 
tion, to which the renal gland structure is subjected. 
As the toxemia differs very greatly in character and 
degree in the different forms—mild and severe—of 
diabetes, so we find the secondary changes in the kid¬ 
neys differing widely in their essence and microscopic 
character. 

“The most interesting histologic feature of the 
diabetic kidney is the hyaline degeneration of the 
tubular epithelium first described by Aramanni, and 
now generally known as the cellular necrosis of Eb¬ 
stein. This condition of the tubular epithelium is 
encountered only in severe toxic forms of diabetes. 
Dreschdels found these necrotic changes in 6 out 



SUNDRY SPECULATIONS 


429 


of 10 cases of diabetic coma. Other renal alterations 
occasionally met with in severe forms of the disease 
are hypertrophy and the so-called lesion of Ehrlich, 
which, according to Frerichs and Ehrlich, consists in 
glycogen degeneration of Henle’s loop and the 
straight tubes. All these renal changes may be 
ascribed to the action of toxic bodies of highly irri¬ 
tating character, such as acetone, diabetic and ocy- 
butyric acids, etc., which are present in the blood and 
urine of such cases. 

“In the mild long-continued form of diabetes the 
renal changes which develop are usually those of 
chronic nephritis. The development of chronic 
nephritis under these circumstances may be ex¬ 
plained by prolonged hyperfunction, combined with 
persistent but low-grade irritation of the renal struc¬ 
ture by the saccharin urine, which lead first to hype- 
raemia, and if long enough continued, finally to in¬ 
flammation of the parenchyma and overgrowth of the 
interstitial tissue. In this type of the disease the 
renal gland changes are nutritional and degenerative, 
whereas in the rapidly progressive and toxic form 
of the malady they are inflammatory or necrotic. In 
the majority of cases presenting chronic organic 
processes in the kidneys the nephritis is probably of 
the mixed type, presenting both parenchymatous 
changes and interstitial hyperplasia. In the aged, dia¬ 
betes arteriosclerotic renal atrophy is frequent. 

“Attempts have been made to classify the albumi¬ 
nuria of diabetes. Goudard distinguishes two noso¬ 
logic varieties, which he names functional and 
lesional, the former associated with renal fatigue 
with phosphaturia or with organic disassimilation, 
whereas the lesional is produced by some form of 
renal lesion. Jacobson, on similar grounds, separates 
albuminuria of diabetes into benign and severe. 



430 


DIABETES MELLITUS 


“Grube divides diabetic albuminuria into five va¬ 
rieties, viz.: 1, terminal albuminuria associated with 
diabetic coma; 2, cardiac albuminuria met with in 
connection with myocardial weakness; 3, senile al¬ 
buminuria of arteriosclerotic origin; 4, functional 
albuminuria due to irritation of kidneys by the 
saccharin urine; 5, albuminuria associated with or¬ 
ganic renal changes. Salles recommends an equally 
complicated classification. 

“It seems to the writer unnecessary and confus¬ 
ing to adopt any elaborate classification for this con¬ 
dition. With the exception of the rare cases of albu¬ 
minuria produced by circulatory failure in patients 
of asthenic type, the albuminuria of diabetes, may, 
for general clinical purposes, be placed in one of two 
categories.”—By permission of the Editor, Journal 
A. M. A. 

This writer, in common with medical writers in 
general, gives abundant evidence of having been 
overwhelmed by the multiplicity and the contrariety 
of the facts that he has observed, for he makes no at¬ 
tempt to explain any one of them. 

In further proof of the proposition that authori¬ 
ties are lost in the maze of facts and phenomena that 
diabetes presents I will now quote a few paragraphs 
from pages 223 and 224 of Saundby’s late work on 
“Renal and Urinary Diseases.” 

“This sugar production is now thought to be a 
product of the vital activity of the liver (paton) 
under the stimulus of the excito-secretory nerve, or 
according to Pavy, it results from the contact of 
arterial blood. 

“The vascular derangement which permits this 
great afflux of arterial blood to the liver is assumed 



MORE SPECULATIONS 


431 


by Pavy to be a vaso-motor paralysis of the splanch¬ 
nic area, in consequence of which the blood reaches 
the portal vein without becoming deoxygenized. 

“Kuhne and Heynsius have suggested that gly- 
cocholic acid may split up into urea and glucose, and 
they found that the introduction of glycogen (CHH 
Na, or sugar of gelatin, a constituent of bile) into 
the blood is followed by an increase in the amount 
of urea in the liver and urine, and of glycogen in the 
liver. 

“ According to Seegan, the liver contains at the 
instant when life ceases 0.4 to 0.6 per cent, of sugar 
(Bernardi, 0.2 to 0.3 per cent.; Dalton, 0.2 to 0.4 per 
cent.; Pavy 0.02 to 0.05 per cent). 

“Also while carotid blood is mixed, venous blood 
from the right side of the heart contains about the 
same amount of sugar (0.109 to 0.153 per cent., a 
little in excess of the portal blood), the blood of the 
hepatic vein contains twice as much sugar as the 
portal vein (seegan). 

“Bernard thought that the glycogen of the liver, 
formed from the starchy matter of food, is stored up 
and converted gradually into sugar by a ferment in 
the liver. 

“This ferment Bernard believed he had isolated, 
but it has since been shown that any soluble albumin¬ 
ous body may be made to yield a solution capable of 
converting starch into sugar produced by true fer¬ 
ments (e. g., ptyalin, diastase) has a slighter reduc¬ 
ing action with a greater rotatory power and is prob¬ 
ably identical with maltose. According to Dastre, 
the liver contains no diastatic ferment, but the liver 
cells possess the power of converting sucrose into 
glucose. 

“It seems to be admitted on all hands that carbo- 



432 


DIABETES MELLITUS 


hydrates may be formed in the body from proteids, 
either by splitting off (pavy), or by complete decom¬ 
position and building up again (pfluger), and it is 
even contended by some that every 100 grammes of 
albumen converted into urea yields 45 grammes of 
sugar, or for every gramme of nitrogen eliminated 
by the urine 2.8 grammes of sugar are formed. It is 
believed that this formation of sugar takes place in 
the liver. Obviously when we reflect on its various 
sources the amount of sugar produced in the liver 
must be enormous, yet what becomes of it? Pavy 
maintains that there is less sugar in the hepatic vein 
than in the portal vein, and although he is in this 
respect stoutly opposed by Seegan, who in sixty-four 
observations found the sugar increased from 80 to 
100 per cent, in the hepatic vein, he has found many 
observers to support his assertion that arterial blood 
contains no more sugar than venous blood (ables, 
beck and hoffmann). Chauveau and Kaufmann 
find that arterial always contains more sugar than 
venous blood, so that it may be wise for the present 
not to abandon the notion that sugar is poured into 
the circulation by the liver in such quantities as can 
be dealt with by the tissues, in which it is ultimately 
utilized and decomposed.’’ 

After referring to many other conflicting theories 
and opinions Saundby sums up the situation (page 
231) in the following terms: 

“The true bearing of all these facts upon the path¬ 
ogenesis of diabetes must remain for the present 
unsettled. 

“Let us take note for a moment of the gaps in our 
knowledge. 

“1. It is not known definitely in what form the 
products of saccharine and starchy food leave the 



FRANK ADMISSIONS 


433 


liver, whether as sugar and partly as fat, as Pavy 
thinks. 

“2. It is not known by what paths the influence 
of the various nerve lesions, which produce glyco¬ 
suria, reaches the liver, though this is probably 
through the pneumogastrics (arthatjd and butte.) 

“3. We are still uncertain of the nature of the 
influence of the pancreas on the production of 
sugar. ’ 9 

This author then proceeds with the following 
comments and references: 

“ Until these questions have been settled we have 
not a proper basis for a rational pathology of 
diabetes. 

“ There are two main theories which receive a 
large amount of support: 1, that of overproduction 
by the liver; 2, that of diminished destruction by the 
tissues; and to these we may add, 3, paralysis of the 
renal epithelium, which is a return to the old view of 
the renal origin of diabetes. 

“The first of these is generally accepted, and 
modern opinion inclines to the view that the over¬ 
production is the consequence of either direct nerve 
stimulus to the hepatic cells, or removal of some in¬ 
fluence which normally controls them, e. g., the pan¬ 
creatic secretion. Pavy, as is well known, regards 
the excessive activity, or as he thinks it, morbid func¬ 
tion of the liver, to be due to vaso-motor paralysis; 
but Michael Foster points out that strychnine poison¬ 
ing, in which the vessels are strongly contracted, 
causes glycosuria. It is possible that strychnine 
causes a rapid discharge of sugar before the vaso¬ 
motor spasm has taken place; but the curious effects 
of phloridzin indicate that in the action of drugs we 
may have to do with a quite different mechanism. 



434 


DIABETES MELLITUS 


“ Hamilton, accepting the vaso-motor theory, says 
there are two possible modes in which it may act: 
(1) By diminishing glycogenesis, so that the sugar 
brought to the liver leaves it unchanged; and in sup¬ 
port of this he quotes Ehrlich’s observation that very 
little or no glycogen can be found in fragments of 
liver withdrawn by a trochar from diabetics during 
life; (2), By excessive conversion of glycogen into 
sugar.”—By permission of the publisher, W. B. 
Saunders, Philadelphia, Pa. 

For these and other reasons too numerous to men¬ 
tion, it may well be assumed that the medical pro¬ 
fession will welcome any doctrine which involves or 
even promises a settlement of this vexed question, 
no matter how humble its originator may be or how 
seriously it may militate against existing theories and 
opinions. 

But be this as it may, the writer does not hesitate 
to assert that the various mysteries involved in the 
causation, progress and fatal termination of gly¬ 
cosuria, commonly termed diabetes mellitus, are one 
and all completely dissipated in the light of the theory 
that the diabetic, like the consumptive, is literally 
consumed by the things that he consumes—that for 
some reason, or reasons, he is unable to reduce his 
food, particularly the starchy element thereof, to the 
proper condition to enable it to meet the requirements 
of nutrition and that he is disabled and destroyed by 
this illy-prepared material. In other words, the dia¬ 
betic is gradually starved to death while consuming 
an ample quantity of food—perishing for the ,want 
not of food, but of digestive capacity. The so-called 



DIABETIC MYSTERIES EXPLAINED 


435 


starchy foods prove hurtful to him not because they 
are essentially injurious, but because his stomach is 
all aflame with inflammation—a condition of which 
he is wholly oblivious and which makes his destruc¬ 
tion all the more certain, because it finds expression 
in a species of irritation which is mistaken for a 
“good appetite / 9 when it is a craving similar in its 
origin and ultimate consequences to that of inebriety. 
Moreover, in diabetes pathogen blocks both the liver 
and the pancreas; hence, the former is unable to re¬ 
duce the fibrin and amylaceous materials to bile, the 
result being glucosuria; the latter is unable to pro¬ 
duce enough pancreatic juice to effect the neutraliza¬ 
tion of the acids of the food, the results being the ab¬ 
sorption of material which changes the reaction of 
the blood from the normal alkalinity, that we find in 
health, to the abnormal acidity, that obtains in dia¬ 
betes—an abnormality which is eventually intensified 
by the souring of long retained glucose or diabetic 
sugar. 

The partially digested material in question must 
be gotten rid of, and hence, its carbon element is 
hydrated—turned into diabetic sugar—and dis¬ 
charged through the renal emunctory, this being the 
most available avenue for the elimination of the of¬ 
fending material. 

ANOTHER MYSTERY CLEARED UP. 

The fact is, that in the progress of this disease the 
time finally comes when the carbon of any kind of 
food is transformed into glucose. In extreme cases 
the carbon of the albuminoids is just as certainly 



436 


DIABETES MELLITUS 


turned into sugar, as is that of the so-called starchy 
foods. The starchy foods produce more sugar in the 
diabetic than the nitrogenous for the simple reason 
that starch granules are harder for diabetics to digest 
than albumen. This explains the well known fact 
that the avoidance of “starchy foods’’ does nothing 
more than modify the output of sugar, the patient 
remaining diabetic in spite of the avoidance of sac¬ 
charine and starchy substances. Hence, the time 
finally comes when he cannot digest the albuminous 
foods. Then it is that he discharges albumen, as 
shown by Dr. Elliott in the quotation above given. If 
the reader will pause and re-read the statements of 
this writer he will see in them numerous evidences of 
the truth of the proposition that the time finally 
comes when the diabetic can digest neither starch 
granules nor proteids—that in the early stage of the 
disease the output of sugar is merely reduced by the 
exclusive use of the albuminous foods, and that when 
the more serious stage is reached albumen appears 
in the urine because the system is not able to turn it 
into glucose, as it had been doing. 

A careful study of Dr. Elliott’s article in the light 
of the theory that diabetes is in its essence a gastric 
disease and that the bad work done by this organ is 
responsible for the kidney troubles, will enable the 
reader to see the nature and origin of the difficulties 
referred to by the essayist and those whom he quotes. 
It will be seen, in the first place, that the “ chronic 
nephritis” that appears in the progress of diabetes 
is not explained by ascribing it to “ hyper function,” 



COMPLICATIONS UNRAVELED 


437 


and for the reason that the over-work to which this 
term refers is not accounted for. It will, in the next 
place, he seen that both the nephritis and the over¬ 
work are explained by the theory that the kidneys 
are performing the vicarious work, or hyperfunc¬ 
tion, of discharging partially digested starch or albu¬ 
men, as the case may be, and that this material clogs 
the renal glands and capillaries, producing the same 
effects that are produced by other 4 ‘foreign bodies” 
namely, irritation, inflammation and necrosis; the 
exfoliation, for example, of the lining membrane of 
the uriniferous tubules. 

How natural, therefore, are the troubles referred 
to in the latter part of the article in question! How 
natural, for example, that the discharge of either 
amylaceous or albuminous pathogen should result in 
“renal fatigue”! How natural that indigestion and 
defective elimination should eventually lead to such a 
reduction of the vital energies that the albumen of the 
food cannot be reduced to the soluble and therefore 
removable glucose, and that it should appear, there¬ 
fore, in the urine of the “terminal” period of the 
disease. 

It has long been held that a portion of the food 
is converted into sugar by the action of glycogen 
and that the sugar thus produced is utilized in some 
unknown w r ay in the tissues, but the fact is that gly¬ 
cogen is not the producer, but the thing produced. 
Glycogen is the first step in the hydration of the car¬ 
bon of partially digested food; glucose (diabetic 
sugar) is the finished product, and its destiny is not 



438 


DIABETES MELLITUS 


nutrition, but elimination. The truth of this is 
evinced by the fact that glucose is not to be found in 
the nutrient cavities or cells of either the muscles or 
the nerves. 

The more this theory of the origin, nature and 
workings of diabetes is studied, the more evident 
will be the fact that it is correct in every essential 
particular. For it will be seen that the polyphagia 
(excessive eating) the polydipsia (excessive drink¬ 
ing), and the polyuria (excessive urination), as well 
as the less prominent symptoms are all made clearly 
and dependably intelligible by the theory that dia¬ 
betes is for the most part and from first to last a 
disease of the gastric apparatus. In other w T ords, it 
will be seen that what appears to be an imperative 
demand for food is not a genuine appetite, but the 
effect of the irritation that is occasioned by patho¬ 
genic obstruction of the gastric vessels and struc¬ 
tures; that the extraordinary thirst is simply Na¬ 
ture’s demand for water with which to flush the cir¬ 
culating system and for the purpose of getting rid 
of its burden of undigested food, the carbon of which 
has been turned into glucose, and that the excessive 
urination is the means whereby an increase of this 
burden is measurably prevented. 

By reason of the labor involved in the perform¬ 
ance of such an extraordinary task as this at a time 
when the integrity of the vital structures is rapidly 
declining, the patient can but perish, there being no 
escape from the innutrition, irritation, inflammation 
and tissue-destruction that such a state of things nat¬ 
urally implies. 




CHAPTER XXXYI. , 

ALBUMINURIA CHRONIUS, OR BRIGHT^ DISEASE. 

Interstitial Nephritis, or Bright’s Disease, is an¬ 
other item in the lengthy category of the unex¬ 
plained facts and phenomena of the morbid state. It 
has been studied for a vast space of time and by the 
best talent of which the medical world can boast, and 
yet there is no lack of evidence of the fact that the 
mysteries that it presented both before and during 
the days of Dr. Bright, are mysteries still. Our au¬ 
thorities refer in elaborate detail to the facts but ut¬ 
terly fail to explain them. As in diabetes, so in 
nephritis, there is much contention, discussion and 
speculation, but no explanation. The proof of this is 
to be found in such utterances as those that appear 
in Saundby’s work on the subject of renal diseases. 

In discussing the pathology of albuminuria this 
author propounds an important question, and then 
refers to several theories and speculations that have 
been advanced in answer to it as follows: 

“ What is the mechanism by which albumen passes 
into the urinary secretion ? Since the time of Bright 
there have been two rival theories of this process, and 
of late years a third has been added; these three the¬ 
ories may be called: (1), the Haematogenous; (2), 
the Parenchymatous; and (3), the Vascular. There 
always has been a school which attributed albumin¬ 
uria not to changes in the kidney but to changes in 
the blood, and even in Bright’s own day he was told 
that the structural alterations described by him were 
439 


440 


BRIGHT’S DISEASE 


only the results of the elimination of albumen by the 
kidneys; this doctrine still survives and finds a per¬ 
sistent defender in Semmola, of Naples. His argu¬ 
ment is especially directed to the etiology of Bright’s 
disease, where he contends that the blood contains 
albuminoids of an abnormal diffusibility, so that they 
are found in the saliva, sweat and bile,—a fact in 
which he is supported by Yulpian and others. Tiz- 
zoni, however, found that albumen from the urine of 
a case of Bright’s disease did not cause albuminuria 
when injected into the circulation of animals. Sem¬ 
mola entirely overlooks all that has been recently ob¬ 
served with regard to albuminuria apart from 
Bright’s disease. Nothing can be farther from the 
truth than to suppose that the elimination of albumen 
by the kidney is liable to set up inflammatory action, 
for we know that it may go on for many years with¬ 
out any such result.”—Page 15-16. 

After referring to a long list of experiments the 
author goes on to say (pages 19-21) : 

“As a rule, the albumen appeared to diffuse in 
proportion to the acidity of the urine. The diffusate 
bore no relation to the quantity of albumen present 
in the urine. 

“While it is fully admitted that more carefully 
conducted experiments might determine differences 
in diffusibility due as suggested to alterations in cne 
salts of the blood or the alkalinity of the blood serum, 
there is no evidence that undigested albumen is ever 
excreted by the kidneys; and in this shape the doc¬ 
trine of food albuminuria must be abandoned. 

“The parenchymatous theory ascribes the albu¬ 
minuria to the destruction of the epithelial lining of 
the renal tubules, but there are several hypotheses 
which are strongly opposed to one another. One of 



CONFLICTING OPINIONS 


441 


the most interesting, that of Yon Wittich, adopted by 
Ludwig, and lately revived in Glasgow, is that albu¬ 
men is physiologically transuded through the Mal¬ 
pighian tufts, but reabsorbed by the epithelium of the 
tubules. When the parenchyma is diseased this re¬ 
absorption is more or less hindered and albuminuria 
results. This theory, attractive as it is, is disposed of 
by the experiments of Posner and Ribbert, who 
proved by boiling freshly excised kidneys and hard¬ 
ening them in alcohol that there is no aibumen pres¬ 
ent in the capsular space around the malpighian tuft 
in healthy kidneys even when the epithelium is 
intact. 

“Another form of the parenchymatous hypothesis 
is that when the parenchyma has been shed from the 
tubules the basement membrane permits the transu¬ 
dation of albumen. This theory has never been dis¬ 
proved ; and it is in its favour that kidneys prepared 
by the boiling and alcohol method showed albumen 
in the straight tubes ten minutes after ligature of the 
renal vein. 

“A third suggestion made by Senator is that the 
destruction of the renal epithelium itself furnishes a 
sensible amount of albumen. In the early stage of 
nephritis the epithelial cells shed their protoplasmic 
contents into the lumina of the tubules. This would 
only apply to cases of irritative or inflammatory 
albuminuria. 

“Lastly, there is the vascular theory. The ordi¬ 
nary seat of the transudation of albumen has been 
shown by Posner to be the Malpighian tufts; as was 
suggested by an expert of Nussbaum’s. In frogs the 
veins of the posterior extremities divide in the pelvis 
into two branches, one of which passes to the kidney 
like a portal vein, while the other joins its fellow of 
the opposite side to form the vena abdominalis ante- 



442 BRIGHT’S DISEASE 


rior. The blood in the other branch passes through 
the kidneys and the liver into the vena cava inferior 
to reach the right side of the heart. The renal 
glomeruli receive their blood from the renal arteries, 
and the vasa efferentia pass into the same capillary 
network as that supplied by the renal portal veins, 
so that by tying the renal arteries in frogs the renal 
circulation is not brought to a stand-still as it is in 
mammalia. Taking advantage of this anatomical 
fact, ISTussbaum tied the renal arteries, and then in¬ 
jected a five per cent, solution of egg albumen or a 
ten per cent, solution of peptone into the anterior 
abdominal vein without causing albuminuria, al¬ 
though when the renal arteries were not tied a smaller 
quantity sufficed to produce albuminuria. It is there¬ 
fore proved that in frogs an albuminuric dyscrasia 
causes transudation of albumen only through the 
glomeruli, and it is probable that this is also true in 
man; taken together with Posner’s observations we 
may regard the point as practically determined in 
that sense. 

“The question is, What causes the transudation? 
Is there a physical change in the membrane, or is 
there some alteration in the blood pressure or the 
rapidity of the blood current ? These questions have 
given rise to much discussion. Thoma showed that 
in contracting kidney the walls of the glomeruli are 
actually abnormally permeable, permitting the pass¬ 
age not only of thin fluids and colloids, but of small 
solids such as crystals of cinnabar, and this, too, in 
parts of the kidney presenting no recognizable struc¬ 
tural alteration; but observations are wanting to en¬ 
able us to extend this to other conditions under which 
albuminuria occurs. We know that very slight alter¬ 
ations in the coats of the vessels, such as may be in¬ 
duced by temporarily clamping or ligaturing the 




CONFLICTING OPINIONS 


443 


renal artery, give rise to albuminuria, and this may 
follow simple persistent blocking of the ureter. The 
action of certain poisons, for example, carbolic acid, 
has been proved by boiling, and hardening the kid¬ 
neys in alcohol, to cause albumen to transude through 
the glomerular wall without any visible structural 
alteration taking place (ribbert) 

On pages 22 and 23 the author winds up the dis¬ 
cussion by saying: 

“We may usefully summarize the teachings of 
this lecture in the following conclusions: 

“1. Albuminuria is defined as the presence in the 
urine of serum albumen, or serum globulin, or their 
modifications, syntonin and alkali albumen. 

“2. Albuminuria may be present in healthy per¬ 
sons and persist for long periods without causing any 
derangement of the general health, or of the structure 
of the kidneys. 

1 i 3. Albuminuria per se should not be regarded as 
an insuperable objection to life insurance. 

“4. Albuminuria may occur in dyspeptic people, 
and in weakly over-grown persons, without being an 
indication of actual or potential renal disease. 

“5. Albuminuria may depend upon many causes, 
grouped under three headings: (1), Haematogenous; 
due to alterations in the'diffusibility of the blood 
albuminoids, owing to changes in the salts of the 
blood or the alkalinity of the blood serum; but albu¬ 
minuria is never due, as has been asserted, to the ex¬ 
cretion of undigested or partly digested albumen 
taken as food. (2), Parenchymatous; inflammatory 
changes in the epithelium give rise in the first in¬ 
stance to an albuminous exudate which must be pres¬ 
ent in the urine, and secondly by destroying the cell 





444 


BRIGHT’S DISEASE 


layer and altering the basement membrane, allow 
direct transudation from the lymphatic vessels into 
the tubules. (3), Vascular; the walls of the glom¬ 
eruli probably undergo alterations of their perme¬ 
ability from the effects of poisons, inflammation and 
vaso-motor paralysis, while lowering of the blood 
pressure and slowing of the blood current favour fil¬ 
tration of albumen through them. In venous ob¬ 
structions there is oedema of the whole organ and 
transudation of albuminous fluid direct from the lym- 
phatic spaces into the tubules; in inflammation and 
vaso-motor paralysis a similar oedema is likely to 
occur with identical results.’’—By permission of the 
publisher, W. B. Saunders, Philadelphia, Pa. 

The inconclusiveness and contrariety that these 
quotations evidently possess involve the momentous 
implication that the authors thereof became com¬ 
pletely lost in the maze of facts that they were sur¬ 
veying. Nor can an explanation of the disease in 
question be given without controverting nearly every 
hypothesis thus far advanced. For every attempt to 
account for this grave disease has been framed in 
answer to three erroneous assumptions; first, that 
nutrition consists in the rebuilding of wornout tis¬ 
sues; second, that the albuminous materials in the 
blood are used for this purpose; third, that albumin¬ 
uria, or the presence of serum albumen in the urine, 
is not in its essence a morbid phenomenon, as indi¬ 
cated in conclusion number two of the above quota¬ 
tion, and in the treatment usually employed in such 
cases—measures which have, as a rule, had for their 
object the prevention of the escape of the albumin 
and the furnishing of more material of the kind to 



EXPLANATORY PROPOSITIONS 


445 


make up for the loss in question. To these mistakes 
is due the long existent and absolutely erroneous im¬ 
pression that Bright’s disease is essentially incur¬ 
able. In short, our authorities have stumbled at 
starting and have not as yet discovered the obstacle 
on which the stumbling depended. 

It is a self-evident fact that it remains for some 
one to explain not only the loss of energy, but the 
facts which are involved in or connected with what is 
called Bright’s disease of the kidneys, among which 
are the following: 1. That albumen, the most nutri¬ 
tious of all alimentary substances, is not used but 
discharged along with the urine. 2. That albuminu- 
rics very generally become the victims of pneumonia, 
heart disease, apoplexy and paralysis—diseases 
which are referred to as “ inter cur rent” and which 
have been supposed to have no connection with the 
kidney trouble. 3. That in many cases the vision is 
impaired in some one or more of the following ways: 
first, by sclerosis of the optic nerves; second, by 
6 ‘ neuro-retinitis albuminuria hemorrhagica” (as 
Saundby has termed it), which means that the retina 
has suffered in consequence of the simultaneous oc¬ 
currence of hemorrhage and albuminous transuda¬ 
tion, here a spot of the one, and there a spot of the 
other. 4. That edema in some form or other very 
generally makes its appearance and progresses stead¬ 
ily, as a rule, until the earthly career of the patient is 
brought to a close. 5. That cataract is an occasional 
attendant. 6. That in the progress of the disease the 
heart becomes correspondingly affected, as a rule— 



446 


BRIGHT’S DISEASE 


palpitation, hard thumping, irregular action, dila¬ 
tation, regurgitation and finally paresis, commonly 
called “heart-failure.” 7. That those afflicted with 
nephritis are exceedingly liable to go down with 
pneumonia. 

It appears to be the current opinion that chronic 
nephritis, or Bright’s disease, is from first to last a 
disease of the kidneys; that the escape of albumen is 
due to injuries that the morbid process had previ¬ 
ously inflicted upon the renal glands and uriniferous 
tubules, and that the accompanying debility is due 
for the most part, if not entirely, to the escape of the 
most nutritious element of the food, viz., albumen. 

THE PRIMARY LESION. 

Now the writer’s views based on twenty years of 
pains-taking research, are radically different from 
those which are held in authoritative circles, and 
since he has verified them by clinical work of un¬ 
exampled successfulness, he does not hestitate to say 
that the singularly intractable, morbid phenomenon 
that is known to science as “Bright’s Disease of the 
Kidneys” is essentially and from first to last a dis¬ 
ease of the stomach, and that it has its origin in 
pathogenosis of the gastric structures. Because of 
the injuries thus inflicted upon the gastric laboratory, 
the food can only be partially digested. That is to 
say, instead of the food being converted into a per¬ 
fectly diffusible and therefore perfectly usable state, 
as it evidently should be, it is merely changed into 
what is called hemialbumose, a thing which is suffi- 



AN IMPORTANT ILLUSTRATION 


447 


ciently diffusible to find its way into the circulation, 
but is incapable of passing through the infinitely finer 
tissues of which the walls of the nutrient cells of the 
muscles and nerves are composed, as stated and ex¬ 
plained in the preceding pages. 

Let it not be forgotten that the growth of the 
body, the repair of its injured tissues and the devel¬ 
opment of its energies, are one and all dependent 
upon the complete digestion or liquefaction of the 
food. As the earthy matters of the soil must be com¬ 
pletely liquefied before they can subserve the pur¬ 
pose of the plant, so must the foods be completely 
dissolved before they can be of any use to the living 
organism. Hemialbumose is nothing more nor less 
than half-digested food, as the term naturally im¬ 
plies, and is therefore not only incapable of subserv¬ 
ing the purposes of life, but destined to act the part 
of an injurious or a dangerous “foreign body,” ac¬ 
cording to the shape it may happen to assume during 
its sojourn within the living organism. 

With the purpose of obviating the disasters which 
are liable to occur in consequence of the presence of 
partially digested albumen in the circulating system, 
the kidneys are called upon, as it were, to perform 
the hazardous task of casting it out, in which event 
it appears in the urine in the shape of serum- 
albumen, which is only another name for that arch¬ 
destroyer, pathogen. The fact that the material in 
question is cast out before it has undergone any ma¬ 
terial change does not mean that a valuable thing is 
going to waste because the renal glands are relaxed, 



448 


ERIGHT’S DISEASE 


and that we must check the waste by the exhibition of 
astringents. Nor does it mean that we must make 
up for the loss by prescribing albuminous foods, as 
some authorities have supposed. It means, on the 
contrary, that the system is ridding itself of material 
that is far worse than useless, and that every attempt 
to make up for the loss by prescribing albuminous 
foods serves to make a bad matter worse. 

So long as the system is successful in its attempts 
to get rid of this offensive material, there is but little 
trouble experienced, the decline of the vital energies 
being so gradual that it is scarcely noticeable. But 
the time eventually comes when the organism can not 
readily relieve itself of the obnoxious intruder, and 
for the reason that the offending material becomes 
too highly concentrated, or thickened, to be easily dis¬ 
charged. It remains in the circulation, therefore, 
and being in a semi-liquid or plastic state, it is carried 
from place to place by the blood stream, interfering 
more and more as time progresses with vital opera¬ 
tions in general, and with nutrition and elimination 
in particular, the one fact accounting for the debility, 
and the other for the low specific gravity of the urine. 
In case it lodges in or presses upon the optic nerve, 
there will be an impairment, or a complete obscura¬ 
tion of the vision, according to the extent and severity 
of the involvement. In case it lodges in the capil¬ 
laries of the retina, the pressure of the circulating 
system will either cause the pent-up blood to escape, 
producing retinal hemorrhage, or force the albumen 
out of the circulation, producing the albuminous 



SUNDRY EXPLANATIONS 


449 


patches that usually occur in conjunction with retinal 
hemorrhage. In case the albumen finds its way into 
the crystalline lens of the eye, the effect will be that 
opacity which is termed cataract, a thing which either 
bedims or completely obliterates the vision, accord¬ 
ing to the extent of the infiltration. The vitreous 
humor of the eye is similarly bedimmed by the same 
thing. We might go on thus to the end of the cate¬ 
gory of the injuries that flow from that form of dis¬ 
ease which finds its most conspicuous effects in organs 
which are so remotely situated with reference to the 
primary and principal lesion that it has been mis¬ 
understood and therefore misnamed “Bright’s Dis¬ 
ease of the Kidneys.’’ 

In further explanation of the workings of patho¬ 
gen in the progress of this disease it may be said that, 
by reason of its extreme viscidity or adhesiveness, it 
either clings to the walls of the capillaries, thus re¬ 
ducing their calibre, or completely plugs them up— 
a circumstance which eventuates in some one or more 
of the manifold effects that such a fact naturally im¬ 
plies. For instance: The clogging of the renal 
capillaries will be followed by that damning-up of 
the blood stream which is termed congestion, which 
eventuates in; first, inflammation; second, the ex¬ 
foliation of the lining membrane of the uriniferous 
tubules; third, necrosis of the renal structures; 
fourth, the retention of the urine; fifth, the intra- 
renal decomposition of the urine; sixth, the absorp¬ 
tion of the toxic materials thus produced. Then 
comes that dread and certainly fatal somnolence 



450 


BRIGHT’S DISEASE 


which is attributed—and quite correctly—to uraemic 
poisoning, for these toxic compounds are second only 
to carbon dioxide in their death-dealing possibilities. 

EDEMATOUS CONDITIONS EXPLAINED. 

In case the stomata of the lymphatics become 
clogged with pathogen, as they often do in the prog¬ 
ress of nephritis, the lymph will remain in the in¬ 
terstitial spaces and gradually accumulate, produc¬ 
ing what may be called direct interstitial edema. In 
the event that it lodges in the lymphatic glands, the 
lymph will be forced, by the vis-a-tergo of the on¬ 
coming lymph-stream to escape into the interstices 
of the adjacent tissues, thus producing what may be 
termed indirect interstitial edema. On one or the 
other of these occurrences depends not only the 
dropsical aspects of the disease in question, but every 
other form of edema with which w r e have to contend. 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 


PULMONARY CONSUMPTION. 

Pulmonary Consumption, is the most intractable, 
destructive and problematic disease with which we 
have to deal. It sets in, as a rule, at puberty, the 
very period of life when one would naturally sup¬ 
pose that the vital energies and structures are best 
prepared to resist its encroachments, and goes for¬ 
ward with its destructive work in spite of all remedial 
measures and modes of management that the best 
medical talent of the centuries has been able to de¬ 
vise. It assails with equal frequency the high as 
well as the low, the rich as well as the poor, the wise 
as well as the unwise. Xor can it be said that its 
assaults are confined to the delicately organized and 
feebly constituted. For it is far from being an un¬ 
common thing for this dread disease to assail the 
finest and most promising specimens of physical 
manhood, and with the effect of either a gradual or a 
very rapid change from the ruddiness, plumpness 
and forcefulness of abounding health, to the lean¬ 
ness, weakness and whiteness of “The White Death.” 

To find out the causes of this dread disease, and 
how to stay its ravages, has been at once the supreme 
demand of the world, and the crowning purpose of 
its greatest physicians, philosophers and philanthro¬ 
pists. In the face of difficulties and discouragements 
of unparalleled magnitude, the medical world has 

451 


452 


PULMONARY CONSUMPTION 


maintained its search for the much needed light for 
many centuries, and never with greater intensity or 
unanimity than it has in the recent past. And as a 
result of this the greatest of all movements of the 
kind, embracing nearly a century of unremitting re¬ 
search, it was confidently believed that the various 
problems involved in this dread disease had been very 
nearly if not completely solved. That is to say, it 
seemed to be an undeniable fact that the discovery of 
the “tubercle bacillus” had settled the question of 
causation; that the doctrine of “retrograde tissue 
metamorphosis” had solved the problems of debility 
and emaciation, and that the timely employment of 
“germicides” would afford a rational solution of the 
problems of prevention and eradication . 

These theories and discoveries seemed to confer 
the extraordinary advantages of correct manage¬ 
ment in matters dietetic, of ocular demonstration in 
diagnosis, and of direct and well-advised assault in 
matters prophylactic and therapeutic. It was confi¬ 
dently expected and asserted, therefore, that the 
dread destroyer, pulmonary consumption, would soon 
be brought under practically complete control. The 
more optimistic went so far, even, as to express the 
belief that we would eventually succeed in “stamp¬ 
ing it out.” 

PUZZLING DISAPPOINTMENTS. 

It is a fact, however, that these expectations 
were not so much as fairly realized, as stated in a 
preceding paragraph. Instead of being able to cure 
consumption by removing the agents of infection and 



A HUMILIATING CIRCUMSTANCE 


453 


supplying the materials for the rebuilding of the 
wasted structures, as we had been led to believe, we 
were confronted by the fact that but little impression 
was thus made upon either its progress or its fatality. 
Moreover, as time advanced and experiences accumu¬ 
lated it became more and more evident that phthisis 
depends upon something else besides the germ—that 
the action of the tubercle bacillus depends upon some 
unknown agent, substance or thing, which finds its 
way into the body in advance of the germ, and which 
may well be suspected of having the further effect of 
lowering the vitality of the body. 

Nor can it be amiss to here call attention to the 
very humiliating circumstance that this is only one 
out of the many facts that go to show that the dis¬ 
covery of the agents of infection, important as it 
evidently was, has not relieved our authorities of the 
primeval necessity of attributing one problematic 
disease or symptom to some other disease or symptom 
which is equally problematic, or nearly so. The evi¬ 
dences of this fact are not only abundant but as 
palpable as they are deplorable. We are told, for 
example, that in the causation of phthisis the action 
of the microbes depends upon “ inflammatory condi¬ 
tions, such as pneumonia or capillary bronchitis and 
influenza.”—Journal American Medical Association, 
May 31, 1902; that the fatalities of angina pectoris 
are due to “ over-accumulation of blood within the 
ventricular cavities”; that in phthisis, the blood sup¬ 
ply of the lung is “ impeded by an inflammatory 
thickening of the inner coat of many of the small and 



454 


PULMONARY CONSUMPTION 


medium sized arteries”—Flint; that hyperaemia is 
due to “ diminished cardiac power, or to obstruction 
of an arterial trunk, or to obstruction to the circula¬ 
tion in the capillaries * * * from pressure and serous 
effusions in capillary areas”—Green; that thrombo¬ 
sis is due to “ damage or absence of the lining of the 
vessel wall, retardation of the blood stream and 
changes in the blood itself increasing its coagulabil¬ 
ity”—Green; that atrophy is caused by “Deficient 
Supply of Nutritive Material,” or to “Diminished 
Functional Activity”—Green. 

EXPLAINED BUT NOT EXPLAINED. 

It is needless to point out, that this thing of re¬ 
ferring one disease to some other morbid condition 
which has never been explained, as the medical writ¬ 
ers of both the past and the present have done, is not 
to remove, but simply to shift the difficulty. To 
affirm that the tubercle bacillus is the cause of tuber¬ 
cular disease and then admit, as all authorities have 
done, that it is powerless in the absence of a “suit¬ 
able soil” of which they have no knowledge, is not 
sufficiently definitive, or determinant, to satisfy the 
duly inquisitive mind. It is complete illumination, 
not penumbral haze that satisfies. 

The fact that the medical world is still at sea with 
regard to the nature, cause and cure of pulmonary 
consumption is evinced by the frequency with which 
we encounter such articles as that which was con¬ 
tributed by Wilkinson to the British Medical Journal 
of June 7, 1902. On the occasion in question this 





KOCH’S DISCOVERIES NOT FINAL 


455 


eminent man of science summarized his convictions 
in the following terms: 

“Though Koch has not put it in our power to 
work miracles, he has discovered a method of treat¬ 
ing pulmonary tuberculosis in the early stages with 
eminent success. His method alone rests on a scien¬ 
tific basis, hut the last word has not been said on any 
method of treatment; least of all upon the tuberculin 
treatment. Philip, of Edinburg, speaks in high 
praise of it. Is it the truth to say, then, that the 
treatment has been abandoned ? It is difficult beyond 
ordinary comprehension to give a right value to the 
effect of any method of treatment in a disease that 
runs such a variable course as pulmonary tubercu¬ 
losis. It is constantly asserted that pulmonary tuber¬ 
culosis is curable; it is certainly true that we fail 
more often than we succeed in curing it. A dangerous 
and most misleading doctrine it is for patients and 
physicians alike that pulmonary tuberculosis is cur¬ 
able in all its stages. No doubt, in many cases, pul¬ 
monary tuberculosis is cured by nature’s own myste¬ 
rious ways, hut man has still to learn how best to imi¬ 
tate and help nature. Healed tuberculosis is a com¬ 
mon post-mortem condition, but in most of these cases 
there has been no history or evidences of tuberculous 
disease of the lungs. Tubercle bacilli are often 
missed in the lesions. Even if proved to be present, 
they may be dead, and perhaps were never alive in 
the tissue. Conditions of cicatrization without 
caseation do not necessarily depend on tuberculosis. 
Irritants, especially dust particles, broncho¬ 
pneumonia, and, moreover, as Birch-Hirschfield and 
others have proved, the arrested developments of 
terminal bronchioles may lead to the production of 
dense fibrous areas, quite' independent of tuberculous 
changes. 



456 


PULMONARY CONSUMPTION 


“We are deceiving ourselves if we measure the 
curability of tuberculosis of the lungs by these inter¬ 
esting anatomical curiosities of the mortuary. The 
practical physician wishes rather to know how often 
tuberculosis of the lungs that is recognized by signs 
and symptoms during life is and may be cured by 
man’s various resources. At the very threshold we 
are met w T ith the difficulty of determining a priori 
the usual standard course the disease runs. Measles, 
scarlet fever, diphtheria, typhoid fever, and the like 
run a fairly typical course and come to an end in a 
few weeks. We may therefore roughly measure the 
effect of treatment, notably in diphtheria. Yet even 
some distinguished authorities still refuse to believe 
that antitoxin treatment is the ideal treatment. How, 
then, can we expect unanimity regarding the effects 
of various methods of treatment in a disease like tu¬ 
berculosis of the lungs, that presents infinite variety, 
and lasts, not a few weeks, but months and years, and 
even a lifetime ? Some tell us that the primary lesion 
is in the bronchial glands, some say in the lymphatics, 
some say in the bronchial mucous membrane (Vir¬ 
chow, Birch-Hirschfeld), some even that the tubercle 
bacilli enter the lungs by the vessels (Aufreeht). 
Some believe that the infective agent reaches the 
lungs by the alimentary tract (tonsils), whence, via 
the lymphatics, the apex of the lungs is invaded. The 
majority hold that infection occurs by the inhalation 
of tubercle bacilli that may be arrested in the bron¬ 
chial mucous membrane or may pass through the un¬ 
injured mucous membrane into the bronchial glands. 

“ Wandering through this maze of discrepant 
opinions we may realize the intricacy and subtlety of 
the great problem that is crying out for a speedy solu¬ 
tion in the name of suffering humanity. The disease 
may exist for months and years without arresting the 



CURRENT METHODS UNSATISFACTORY 


457 


attention of patient or physician; it may become 
quiescent at any time; it may relapse after months 
or years; it may reach a serious stage, involving the 
greater part of a lobe, and then end in perfect resto¬ 
ration of health. In spite of treatment of any and 
every kind, the disease may never relent. The victim 
knows no respite till death. Without any treatment 
the disease may come to a standstill, and never again 
disturb the health. The most affectionate regard for 
logic may not restrain us from attributing success to 
our own small efforts and failures to the vagaries of 
the disease. Our memories seize fast hold of suc¬ 
cesses ; we leave others to record our failures, or leave 
them unrecorded. Let us adopt what measures we 
may, more or less failure is the rule, and yet we place 
a high value on many of our methods. In no other 
disease is it so difficult to estimate fairly the effect of 
treatment upon the course of the disease as it is in 
pulmonary tuberculosis. One sees cases of pulmon¬ 
ary tuberculosis even complicated with tuberculous 
ulceration of the larynx or epiglottis get well of them¬ 
selves without any special treatment, without sana¬ 
torium treatment, without injections of any sort, 
without local applications. 

“The best results of sanatorium treatment do not 
present such a satisfactory result of success that we 
should rest satisfied. Analyze the statistics of 
Weicker’s sanatorium or Englemann’s more exten¬ 
sive analysis of the result in German sanatoria. We 
shall have to travel far before we can be satisfied. To 
paraphrase Lord Rosebery’s epigram: The physi¬ 
cian who is satisfied with sanatorium treatment is 
lost. The rational method of Brehmer is sound as 
far as it went, though often laborious and tedious in 
practice, but no other method was possible in his day. 
Sanatorium treatment holds out much hope of sue- 



458 


PULMONARY CONSUMPTION 


cess, especially in the early stages of the disease; but 
surely any method that fails in at least 50 per cent, of 
the cases does not satisfy the conditions of an ideal 
method. The plague, dreadful as it is, is more mer¬ 
ciful, it kills, but it hardly kills 50 per cent, of 
its victims. The results of sanatorium treatment dis¬ 
closed in Weicker’s careful table show that there is 
plenty of room for improvement. Of 881 cases, 209 
had no sputum. Of the remaining 627, only 234 had 
tubercle bacilli in the sputum; that is to say, 72 per 
cent, had no tubercle bacilli in the discharges from 
the lung; 72 per cent, were cases of closed tubercu¬ 
losis. If no tubercle bacilli were found in the sputum 
tuberculin was used as a routine method of diagno¬ 
sis.’ ’—Brit. Med. Journal. 

The morbid anatomy of acute tuberculosis is re¬ 
ferred to by Thompson in the following terms: 

4 ‘ There are present the ordinary appearances of 
acute febrile disease in general, including moderate 
visceral congestion and softening, with slight en¬ 
largement of the spleen. The tubercles are identical 
with those of chronic tuberculosis except as to their 
wide distribution. In diameter they vary between 
one two-hundred-and-fiftieth and one-five-hundredth 
inch. They are mostly discrete, but often close to¬ 
gether, and aggregations of miliary nodules are also 
found, some of which are as large as a pea. In chil¬ 
dren’s lungs they are often quite large. Lymphoid 
cells infiltrate the walls of the arterioles, particularly 
in the pia mater. Caseous change usually does not 
have time to take place in so acute a disease, but a 
few tubercles may have friable, cheesy centres. Tu¬ 
bercles visible to the naked eye and granular to the 
touch permeate the entire lungs and perhaps the 
pleura. They are gray and translucent and there is a 



UNEXPLAINED PROBLEMS 


459 


notable absence of the caseous masses and abscess 
cavities belonging to chronic tuberculosis. The tu¬ 
bercles are found in the walls of the pulmonary ves¬ 
sels, bronchi, and air cells. The air cells between the 
tubercles are practically choked with cast-off epi¬ 
thelium, granular detritus or fibrin, and leucocytes in 
small quantity. The bronchial mucosa shows exten¬ 
sive catarrhal inflammation. The spleen and liver 
are filled with miliary tubercles. In the liver the 
tubercles are present in the lobules, and connective 
tissue lies between, which latter exhibits hyperpla¬ 
sia.”—Thompson’s Practical Medicine, pages 224- 
225, by the courtesy of the publishers, Lea Brothers 
& Co., Philadelphia. 

The structural effects of tuberculosis are set forth 
and emphasized by Green as follows: 

“The structural changes met with in the lungs in 
phthisis are mainly of four kinds: (1), an accumu¬ 
lation of epithelial cells within the pulmonary al¬ 
veoli, (2), the presence within the alveoli of a fibri¬ 
nous exudation and leucocytes; (3), a cellular infil¬ 
tration and thickening of the alveolar walls, together 
with, in most cases, a similar change in the walls of 
the terminal bronchioles; and (4), an increase in the 
interlobular connective tissue. These four kinds of 
morbid change are very constantly associated, al¬ 
though in very different degrees, and some of them 
are more prominent and characteristic than others. 
The preponderance of one or other of them produces 
those variations in the physical characters of the 
lungs which are met with in the different stages and 
in the different varieties of the disease. The various 
structural changes must now be considered sepa¬ 
rately, together with the more important alterations 



460 


PULMONARY CONSUMPTION 


which they produce in the physical characters of the 
organs. 

“1. An accumulation of epithelial cells 
within the pulmonary alyeoli.— This is one of the 
most frequent changes met with in phthisis, and is 
precisely similar to that which has been already 
described as occurring in catarrhal pneumonia. The 
alveoli are found filled with large nucleated elements, 
apparently the offspring of the epithelial cells nor¬ 
mally lining the alveolar walls. In some acute cases 
of phthisis this alveolar accumulation may constitute 
almost the only morbid change, and although there is 
always some cell-infiltration of the alveolar walls, the 
great bulk of the pulmonary consolidation is due to 
the stuffing of the alveolar cavities with catarrhal 
products. In some parts—those in which the change 
is the most recent—the large cells which fill the alveoli 
and the alveolar walls will be found but little altered; 
but in the greater portion of the consolidated tissues 
the cells will be seen in various stages of retrogressive 
metamorphosis, and the alveolar walls destroyed, 
while in those tracts of tissue in which the process is 
most advanced all trace of structure is precisely ana¬ 
logous to those met with in many of the larger papu¬ 
lar lesions of acute tuberculosis. 

i ‘ 2. The presence within the alveoli of fibrin¬ 
ous exudation and leucocytes.— This is less fre¬ 
quent than the preceding figure. The exudation- 
products are similar to those which fill the alveoli in 
ordinary croupous pneumonia. The coagulum, how¬ 
ever, is usually not so abundant, neither is the fibril¬ 
lation quite so distinct. In the most acute forms of 
phthisis this may constitute the principal cause of the 
pulmonary consolidation, but it is usually associated 
with more or less epithelial proliferation.* 

“The appearances presented by the lungs, in those 



MORE UNEXPLAINED FACTS 


461 


cases in which pulmonary consolidation is due mainly 
to any of the intraalveolar changes above described 
are very characteristic. The consolidated tissue is 
soft and friable, breaking down very readily under 
the finger, and there is complete absence of any indu¬ 
ration. The consolidation, although sometimes al¬ 
most uniform, generally presents a somewhat lobu- 
lated outline, indicating the implication of different 
groups of the pulmonary lobules. The color varies 
from a reddish to a yellowish-gray, while small por¬ 
tions of a more decidedly yellow tint are often scat¬ 
tered through the consolidated mass. These scattered 
areas correspond with those parts in which the retro¬ 
gressive changes are the most advanced, and they are 
even softer in consistency than the surrounding tis¬ 
sue. In many parts the consolidated tissue will be 
found broken down so as to form cavities of various 
sizes. These usually possess irregular walls, which 
are quite soft and friable, like the solid tissue sur¬ 
rounding them. 

3. A CELLULAR INFILTRATION AND THICKENING OF 
the alveolar walls, and, in most cases, of the walls 
of the terminal bronchioles. This is the most char¬ 
acteristic phthisical lesion; for while it is con¬ 
stantly associated with the above m£ra-alveolar 
changes, it is only exceptionally present in the more 
acute pulmonary inflammations previously described. 
Its extent varies considerably in different cases. The 
change is precisely similar to that which has been al¬ 
ready described, as occurring in acute miliary tuber¬ 
culosis. In its earlier stages a few small cells are seen 
infiltrating the alveolar septa, which are thus slightly 
thickened. As the change proceeds the number of 
these cells increases, and from them an imperfect 
fibro-nucleated structure is developed. This struc¬ 
ture is always imperfectly supplied with new blood- 



462 


PULMONARY CONSUMPTION 


vessels. As the new tissue develops in the alveolar 
walls it gradually obliterates and replaces the alveo¬ 
lar cavities, so that whilst in some portions the thick- 
walled alveoli may be found still containing epithe¬ 
lial elements, exudation-products, or even giant-cells, 
in others, large tracts will be seen constituting almost 
entirely the small-celled growth. The development 
of this non-vascular tissue in the alveolar walls leads 
to the partial, or even complete, obliteration of the 
pulmonary capillaries, which, as will be seen subse¬ 
quently, constitutes an important element in the 
causation of the retrograde changes.”—Green’s 
Pathology and Morbid Anatomy, pages 546 to 551, 
by permission of the publishers, Lea Brothers & Co., 
Philadelphia. 

A few years ago the medical profession was led to 
believe that the discovery of the agents of infection 
had settled the question of the causation of many 
diseases, including phthisis pulmonalis. But the 
medical literature of today, of which the foregoing 
quotations form a not unimportant part, bears evi¬ 
dence of the fact that the researches of the last half 
century, extensive as they have been, have simply led 
us one step further in the direction of the causation of 
disease, and at the expense of adding immensely to 
the previously existing immensity of theories, specu¬ 
lations and unexplained facts. In other words, our 
leaders have explained infection, and in so doing 
have incidentally unearthed, so to speak, a world of 
apparently insurmountable difficulties, the greatest 
and most important of which resides in the suscepti¬ 
bility of the human body to infections and conta- 
giums, while the less important are couched in a vast 



A WORLD OF DIFFICULTIES 


463 


array of such facts as those referred to in the above 
quotations from Wilkinson, Thompson and Green. 

Every man who is in the forefront of the battle 
with disease is desirous of knowing what it is that 
paves the way for diseases in general and for pul¬ 
monary consumption in particular. The lung spe¬ 
cialist wants to know why the elimination of tfLe 
bacillus on which the formation of tubercles depends 
is not sufficient to cure the disease for which it stands, 
or has seemed to stand. He wants to know why the 
vital energies and structures pass into an irretriev¬ 
able decline in spite of the plenteous ingestion of the 
material on which the maintenance of these things 
depends, namely, food. He reads with unbounded 
interest the fact referred to by medical writers in 
general, and by the last named authority in particu¬ 
lar, that in tuberculosis of the lungs, the alveoli and 
the interstitial spaces are crowded with an admix¬ 
ture of “exudation products/’ “epithelial elements/" 
“giant cells” and “leucocytes,” and he wants to 
know where these materials came from, and what it 
was that stuffed them into the tissues and air cells. 
He wants to know how it happens that “ white blood 
corpuscles” become so intimately associated with 
such things as “ fibrin, catarrhal matter, epithelial 
cells, and granular debris” as the foregoing writers 
have stated. He also wants to know whether there is 
any relationship subsisting between the “catarrhal 
products, leucocytes and epithelial cells,” and if so, 
what it is. In other words, he desires an explanation 
which will satisfactorily explain these things. He 



464 


PULMONARY CONSUMPTION 


appeals to the best authorities for the much needed 
light, but in vain. 

How evident, therefore, is the truth of the propo¬ 
sition, that it remains for some one to bring order out 
of chaos and intelligence out of confusion, by pre¬ 
senting a logical explanation of the facts and phe¬ 
nomena of pulmonary disease! 

In the foregoing pages it was shown, and with what 
the writer believes to be unquestionable clearness, 
that a large number of the gravest diseases with 
which we have to contend are due to the presence in 
the circulation of an organized substance which not 
only defeats nutrition and elimination, but affords 
the soil for the propagation of infective organisms 
in general, and of the tubercle bacillus in particular. 

CONSUMED BY THE THINGS HE CONSUMES. 

An attempt will now be made to prove that the 
same thing, namely, pathogen, or partially digested 
food substance, is the active cause not only of the 
arch-destroyer called pulmonary consumption, but of 
other forms of tuberculosis, as well. In other words, 
I propose to show that the consumptive is actually 
consumed by the things that he consumes. 

With this end in view it is hereby affirmed, and 
with the utmost confidence in the essential correct¬ 
ness of the proposition, that the primary lesion in 
every case of pulmonary consumption that ever oc¬ 
curred in the entire history of the world, was gastric 
pathogenosis —the lodgment of pathogen in the gas¬ 
tric follicles and capillaries—and that this eventuated 



A VICTIM OF STARVATION 


465 


in a curtailment of the digestive fluids; a deprecia¬ 
tion of the peristaltic motion of the alimentary tract; 
the occurrence of gastric inflammation; a decline of 
the vital energies; the more and more frequent oc¬ 
currence of coryza; the gradual establishment of 
catarrhal conditions; a shrinkage of the motor 
mechanism, or muscular structures; a clogging of the 
pulmonary capillaries; the propagation of infective 
organisms; the formation of tubercles; the partial 
decomposition, transudation and the expectoration of 
the offending material; the starvation and sloughing 
of the pulmonary tissues, and, finally, the death of 
the patient. In short, it is positively and fearlessly 
affirmed that the consumptive is in the highest sense 
precisely what the facts of his case seem to imply, 
namely, a victim of starvation —that the material 
which was intended to sustain him is not used, but 
converted into sputum, fibrin, tubercles and that vast 
array of so-called “elements’’ and supposedly nor¬ 
mal material referred to in the foregoing quotations 
—things which are theoretically normal, but actually 
abnormal. 

The reader will do well to re-read the chapter on 
pathogenosis and then re-read the splendid descrip¬ 
tions that the foregoing authorities have given of the 
burdens of the consumptive. For by so doing he will 
surely be led to perceive that the riddle of the Great 
White Plague finds a perfectly logical solution in 
the proposition, that the various objects that go to 
make up the foregoing clinical pictures and all other 
pictures of the kind are not and never were normal 



466 


PULMONARY CONSUMPTION 


“elements,” but variously-shaped particles of path¬ 
ogen. In short, we have been so completely bedazzled 
by the corruscations of the cell-theory and the cor¬ 
related doctrines that we have stumbled over the 
truth for the greater part of a century. 

In short, tuberculosis is pathogenosis. 

The theory that the sputum of the consumptive is 
the debris of wasted tissues has never been established 
on either rational or experimental lines; nor can it 
be. For it is from first to last purely if not evidently 
inferential. It is a rough guess, and nothing more. 
There is no disputing the proposition that this hy¬ 
pothesis is founded on neither scientific principles 
nor well established facts, but upon outward appear¬ 
ances alone—upon a misinterpretation of facts, as I 
have repeatedly asserted. In short, the position that 
our authorities have long held with reference to the 
problems of nutrition, emaciation and expectoration, 
is utterly untenable, and should be abandoned at once 
and forever. 

If it be true that the doctrine of “ retrograde tis¬ 
sue metamorphosis” is baseless—and it certainly is— 
then it may well be asked: How can we logically ac¬ 
count for the material that is discharged in the 
progress of coryza, catarrh, la grippe, asthma, pneu¬ 
monia and pulmonary consumption, if not by saying 
that it owes its origin to abortive digestion, as above 
stated ? Again, how can we explain the various facts 
and phenomena which are presented in that match¬ 
less example of vital and structural starvation which 
we call consumption, if not by saying that they are 



A PRIMARY LESION 


467 


the outcome of gastronomic errors and indiscretions ? 
And again, how can we explain the further and well 
known fact that those who are quite temperate in the 
use of food are scarcely less exempt from catarrhal 
and tubercular diseases than those who are obviously 
intemperate in this respect, if not by saying that they 
are the victims of a false dietetic philosophy—that 
they have been induced by plausible but fallacious 
theories to consume a few things if not many things, 
which are not only destitute of nutritive value, but 
surpassingly detrimental to the digestive function, as 
well? 

THE STAFF OF LIFE—THE BLUDGEON OF DEATH. 

But whatever the basic cause may be the fact re¬ 
mains, as already stated, that in every case of con¬ 
sumption that has ever occurred in the history of the 
world, the gastric apparatus was the seat of the pri¬ 
mary lesion, that this lesion consisted in the lodg¬ 
ment of hemialbumose (pathogen) in the gastric 
glands and capillaries, that this was followed by in¬ 
flammation and that as time advanced this injury be¬ 
came greater and greater until the stomach was so 
seriously diseased and disabled that it could do but 
little more than convert “the staff of life” into that 
bludgeon of death, pathogen. 

The consumptive becomes weak, not from the 
want of food, but of the ability to digest it. He be¬ 
comes emaciated, not because of retrograde tissue 
metamorphosis, but of an insufficient quantity of duly 
prepared food, and of the inability of the little that is 



468 


PULMONARY CONSUMPTION 


duly prepared food, to find its way into the nutritive 
cells, the ingress of the properly digested having been 
inhibited by the half-digested material which had also 
found its way into the circulating system, as already 
stated. In other words, the patient becomes debili¬ 
tated and emaciated, not because his tissues are being 
dissolved faster than they can be reconstructed, as we 
heretofore have supposed, but for the more reason¬ 
able reason, that but little of his food is completely 
digested, and that this little is prevented from enter¬ 
ing the nutritive cavities of the muscles and nerves 
by material which had been only partially elaborated. 
He becomes pale, not from the want of iron or even 
haemoglobin in the blood, but of arterial blood in the 
peripheral cells and vessels—a fact which is due to 
both a deficiency in the quantity of arterial blood and 
the interference that is afforded by the presence of 
pathogen in the peripheral capillaries. I repeat, that 
by reason of the lodgment of pathogen in the gastric 
follicles and capillaries and of the resulting inflam¬ 
mation and follicular stenosis, only a small portion 
of the food is transformed into haemocytes, or red 
blood corpuscles, and that the few of these elements 
of ruddiness and power that are formed, are not 
allowed to enter the peripheral vessels and cells. In¬ 
stead of these structures being duly supplied with 
the material upon which the “bloom of health'’ de¬ 
pends ; namely, arterial blood, the latter are practi¬ 
cally empty, while the former are heavily laden with 
that glairy product of indigestion, which is known to 
science as hemialbumose, material which is eminently 




TUBERCLES WITHOUT BACCILI 


469 


calculated to produce that paleness of the skin and 
whiteness of the conjunctiva that we see in the an¬ 
aemic, marasmic and consumptive. 

TUBERCULOSIS WITHOUT TUBERCLES. 

Stengel was right in saying, ‘ 4 that tuberculosis 
sometimes occurs without a single tubercle/ ’ no mat¬ 
ter what idea the term tubercle was intended to con¬ 
vey. In the great majority of cases the material in 
question is reduced to a coagulum in consequence of 
its coming in contact with the spores of the tubercle 
bacillus, in which case it assumes the form of tuber¬ 
cles, as above stated. But this is not always the case, 
for both reason and experience go to show that it may 
produce nearly every symptom we see in phthisis 
pulmonalis without taking the shape of tubercles. 
Nothing can be more reasonable than the foregoing 
and oft-repeated proposition, that the troubles of the 
consumptive have their active origin in the occlusion 
of the gastric capillaries with plastic pathogen. 
Neither can there be anything more reasonable than 
the further contention that this eventuates in a redu¬ 
plication of the original fund of obstructing material, 
that this finds its way into the capillaries of all parts 
of the body and that it produces well nigh as much 
irritation and tissue starvation as that which is re¬ 
duced to a coagulum by the tubercle bacillus, or other¬ 
wise. And furthermore, it is not at all unreasonable 
to suppose that pathogen sometimes assumes the form 
of tubercles without the coagulative action of a bacil¬ 
lus of any kind, and by simply undergoing dehydra- 



470 


PULMONARY CONSUMPTION 


tion and then yielding to the same power that gives 
rotundity to various things, from the dew-drops, to 
the celestial spheres. 

The dehydration of pathogen may be logically at¬ 
tributed to febrile and inflammatory conditions, since 
it is altogether likely that the over-heated tissues will 
quench their thirst and mitigate their dangers by 
extracting water from any available source. 

In a word, there can be no doubt that pathogen 
sends thousands of people to the consumptive’s grave 
while it remains in the plastic state, and by besmear¬ 
ing the capillaries of the various parts of the system, 
thus defeating nutrition and elimination, as above 
stated and explained. 

At this juncture it will be well to digress suffi¬ 
ciently to explain the fact noted by Cabot and other 
observers, that in consumption the leucocyte count 
is not very much increased. In explanation of this 
circumstance it may be said that the peripheral struc¬ 
tures, including the trabeculae of the lymphnodes, 
are greatly shrunken; that the pulmonary tissues are 
correspondingly relaxed and that the greater part of 
the pathogen is discharged as sputum before it has 
had time to become sufficiently inspissated to be 
broken into those particles which are called white 
blood corpuscles. 

Pathogenic obstruction has a worse effect upon 
the lungs than it has upon the muscular structures, 
and for the obvious reason that the pulmonary organs 
are centrally located and must therefore suffer to a 



THE PROGENITOR OF TUBERCLES 


471 


far greater extent from the consequential hyperae- 
mia, stagnation, starvation and pent-up heat—the 
heat that is developed for the most part in the decom¬ 
position of pathogen, and to some extent in the de¬ 
struction of the tissues, both together constituting 
that internal conflagration which finds external ex¬ 
pression in the shape of hectic fever. 

In short, there is no disputing the proposition that 
tuberculosis often exists where there are no tubercles. 
It is needless to push this argument further; for the 
reader will readily perceive that the cogency of the 
proposition lies in the fact, that pathogen is, practi¬ 
cally speaking, the sole progenitor of tubercles. This 
being true, it follows that the term tuberculosis may 
be applied to any discrasia, or form of disease, that 
the material in question may happen to produce. In 
other words, the writer's premises justify the con¬ 
clusion, that nearly every disease that can be named 
is in its essence a form of tuberculosis. It were bet¬ 
ter, however (if the writer may say it), to reserve the 
term tuberculosis for cases in which tubercles are 
present, and to adopt pathogenosis as the cognomen 
of diseases that are caused by plastic pathogen. 

HIDE-BOUND—OXYGEN-STARVED. 

In further elucidation of phthisis pulmonalis I 
would say that in consequence of the curtailment of 
nutritive supplies to which reference has been made, 
the integumentary envelope, or skin, of the sufferer is 
starved until its normal suppleness and elasticity are 
greatly diminished while its pores are either seriously 



472 


PULMONARY CONSUMPTION 


reduced in calibre or completely closed. The lungs 
must therefore assume the unnatural and evidently 
hazardous task of discharging those waste products 
which had failed to find exit through the pores. Nor 
is this the only difficulty that peripheral obstruction 
and innutrition have imposed upon the pulmonary 
organs. For, to the increased labor now described 
there is superadded the resistance to respiration 
which comes from the contraction of the skin. That 
is to say, the patient becomes so seriously hide-bound, 
to use a very crude, but very expressive term, that 
the correspondingly enfeebled respiratory muscles 
are not able to open up the chest cavity as completely 
as they should. In other words, the lungs are com¬ 
pelled to perform the additional and purely vicarious 
task of discharging a large percentage of the per¬ 
spirable matters after the respiratory muscles in 
general and the exterior intercostals in particular, 
have been starved into extreme debility, and their ac¬ 
tion has been correspondingly hampered by the 
shrinkage of the skin. For these reasons the con¬ 
sumptive endeavors in vain to fill his lungs with the 
oxygen laden air that he craves and which he must 
have or else he will perish. And it so happens that his 
3verv attempt to obtain the life-giving and sense- 
sustaining oxygen is made more and more difficult 
by the gradual accumulation of pathogen in the pul¬ 
monary capillaries, one effect being a partial anaes¬ 
thesia, which renders him correspondingly oblivious 
of the situation into which he has drifted. That is to 
say, the absorption of oxygen (the pre-requisite to 



PHTHISICAL ANAESTHESIA 


473 


feeling as well as action) becomes so greatly dimin¬ 
ished in consequence of the lodgment of pathogen in 
the pulmonic capillaries and of the accumulation of 
sputum in the air cells, that the sensorium cannot 
properly perform its function. As the senses are ob- 
tunded in consequence of the displacement of oxygen 
by the vapor of chloroform, so are they blunted by the 
inhibition of oxygen that is superinduced by the 
aforesaid pathogenic involvement of the pulmonary 
capillaries and air spaces. For this reason the vic¬ 
tim of this dread disease is not only oblivious of the 
impending crisis, but is impressed that he is on the 
road to recovery while his vital energies are rapidly 
declining and his vital organs are no less rapidly 
passing into decay. So profound is the reigning 
anaesthesia and so buoyant is the resulting hope, that 
he plans for the distant future, but dies on the 
morrow. 


ANAEMIA PLUS HYPERAEMIA. 

Let it not be forgotten that the troubles of the con¬ 
sumptive are due to the coexistence of peripheral 
anaemia and internal hyperaemia; that the former is 
due to the besmearing of the external capillaries with 
plastic pathogen and that the latter is due to the oc¬ 
clusion of the central vessels with coagulated patho¬ 
gen. By reason of these conditions and of the atmos¬ 
pheric pressure the blood is dammed up, as it were, in 
the pulmonary vessels—a state of things which ren¬ 
ders the patient liable to some one or more of a multi- 





474 


PULMONARY CONSUMPTION 


plicity of disastrous results, among which are the 
following: 

1. In the event that the patient exerts himself to 
an inordinate extent, or that he gives way to the de¬ 
mands of the ever-present or oft-recurring morbid 
appetite, a sudden and extraordinary engorgement 
of the vascular system will take place and be attended 
by some one or more of the results that such a fact 
naturally implies. As a rule the blood-vessels of the 
lungs will be ruptured, and for two reasons; first, the 
pulmonary vessels are located in the region toward 
which the blood is forced by atmospheric pressure; 
second, the blood is driven by atmospheric pressure 
and the action of the heart against the obstructed 
area, and with sufficient force to rupture the previ¬ 
ously diseased and disabled capillaries. Thus it is 
that pulmonary haemorrhage, and every other diffi¬ 
culty that is said to depend upon a “haemorrhagic 
diathesis,” is produced. 

2. The pathogen contained in the incarcerated 
blood is often-times partially decomposed, giving 
rise to sputum, which is forced, as in the preceding 
instance, from the blood-vessels into the pulmonary 
aveoli, or air-cells, and with the obvious effect of a 
corresponding diminution of the respiratory function 
—a cutting-off of oxygen which finds expression in a 
still greater depletion of the vital fund and at the 
very moment when an increase of power is needed for 
the expulsion of the sputum from the air-cells. 

3. The offending material, while it still exists in 
the shape of hemialbumose, is forced in the same way 



CASEATION EXPLAINED 


475 


from the capillaries into the interstitial spaces, or 
parenchyma of the lung, where it undergoes those 
changes of form and consistency which have mystified 
the world for many centuries. The first of these 
changes is that of inspissation, or dehydration; the 
next is that of spheroidal concretion, or the forma¬ 
tion of tubercles; the next is the blending of these into 
larger masses; the next is that of caseous degenera¬ 
tion, while the next and last change is the transfor¬ 
mation of this cheese-like material into calcareous 
matter, which is nothing more nor less than the earthy 
constituent of the offending pathogen, every vestige 
of its organic constituency having been obliterated in 
the progress of its inter-systemic decay. 

4. By reason of the aforesaid imprisonment of 
the blood within the pulmonary vessels and of the re¬ 
sulting stagnation and innutrition, both the blood and 
its dependencies, the subjacent tissues, pass into 
decay, producing cavities and every other misfortune 
that such a process as that now described naturally 
implies. 

THE PREDISPONENT, CONTINUANT AND DETERMINANT. 

Since the truth concerning so grave a disease as 
phthisis pulmonalis cannot be too clearly or fully 
stated, I shall venture to repeat several things which 
have already been presented, and to add such other 
facts and arguments as may seem to be either appro¬ 
priate or necessary. To this end I would say, and 
without the slightest fear of successful contradiction, 
that in every case of consumption that has ever oc- 



476 


PULMONARY CONSUMPTION 


curred in the history of the world, pathogen was at 
once the predisponent, the continuant and the determ¬ 
inant —the thing that rendered the body “suscepti¬ 
ble” to infection, the thing that provided for the con¬ 
tinuance of the infective action, and the thing that 
determined the duration of both the disease, and the 
life of its host, the patient. In other words, it is fear¬ 
lessly affirmed that partially digested food is the soil 
in which the spores of the tubercle bacilli germinate, 
the material upon which the full-fledged bacilli feed 
and the thing that is chiefly responsible for the disso¬ 
lution of the vital structures and the extinguishment 
of the vital energies. 

FORCEFUL IMPLICATIONS. 

The fact that the clinical history of every case of 
phthisis embraces some one or more of those diseases 
which begin with congestion and wind up with trans¬ 
udation, is, and always has been, perfectly pregnant 
with meaning, and yet we have been slow, very slow, 
to see it. It signifies, and in the clearest possible man¬ 
ner, that the various diseases which present these 
symptoms have their origin in one and the same 
thing; namely, pathogen, and are therefore essen¬ 
tially the same. It means that the congestion we see 
in coryza, or a “cold in the head,” is produced by 
the same thing that causes the congestion that we see 
in the incipiency of influenza, asthma, pneumonia and 
consumption. The fact that in the progress of these 
diseases, a catarrhal transudate becomes a more and 
more prominent element of the clinical picture, 



ALL DISEASE, ONE DISEASE 


477 


means that they are nothing more nor less than dif¬ 
ferent manifestations of one and the same disease— 
that coryza is incipient consumption; that catarrh is 
a closer approach to the dread disease; that influenza 
is neither a harbinger of pulmonary phthisis, nor an 
accidental element of the phthisical history, but the 
unmasked approach of the dread destroyer, phthisis 
pulmonalis; that asthma is not an idiopathic affec¬ 
tion, but one of the many links that connect gastric 
pathogenosis with pulmonary tuberculosis; that 
pneumonia is not merely an incidental forerunner of 
the Great White Plague, as we heretofore have sup¬ 
posed, but the acute and most dangerous as well as 
the most painful form of the disease, oftentimes do¬ 
ing as much damage in a few fleeting hours as the 
chronic form of the malady does in many months or 
years. 

The correctness of this generalization and of the 
writer’s further contention that all disease is but one 
disease, essentially speaking, and has direct refer¬ 
ence to the expulsion of pathogen and the repair of 
the injuries that it has inflicted, is evinced, not only 
by the undeniable fact that catarrhal matter, one of 
the forms of pathogen, is almost constantly escaping 
from the bodies of the sick, but by the further and 
easily perceptible circumstance that the mouth of 
every victim of chronic disease is all ablaze, as it 
were, with inflammation, which goes to show that the 
same condition prevails further down the tract, 
where the food must be prepared for vital uses, if 
this is ever done; namely, in the stomach. In other 



478 


PULMONARY CONSUMPTION 


words, the oral cavity of the chronic invalid bears 
evidence of the fact that pathogen has assailed the 
citadel of life by blocking the gastric glands and 
capillaries, and that this has eventuated in inflam¬ 
mation and in a corresponding derangement of other 
organs and functions. 

THE KEY TO THE SITUATION. 

In case we find the fauces, the gateway to the 
gastric cavity, inflamed, or swollen, or studded with 
ulcers, why shall we not conclude that these condi¬ 
tions extend down to and within the digestive appa¬ 
ratus? Has any one been so unobserving as not to 
have perceived that in the great majority of cases 
of chronic disease there is more or less of inflam¬ 
mation at or near the lower end of the alimentary 
tract; that is, in either the rectum, or the sexual sys¬ 
tem, or both together? And how reasonable not to 
say unavoidable, is the inference, that whenever 
laryngitis or anything of the kind exists at one end 
of the digestive canal while the same condition pre¬ 
vails at the other, as it generally does in chronic dis¬ 
ease, a similar state of things obtains in that inter¬ 
mediate part of the tract which we call stomach? 
Again, what interpretation shall we put upon that 
weakness of the vocal chords on which aphonia, or 
loss of voice, depends, if not that their next door 
neighbor and would-be chief supporter, the stomach, 
is in a similarly lax and impotent condition? And 
again, how can we explain the well known fact that 
every case of consumption is attended with gastric 



EXPECTORATION ELUCIDATED 


479 


disturbances—“fits of indigestion’’—and that these 
distressing perturbations become more and more fre¬ 
quent and pronounced as the disease advances, if hot 
by saying that the stomach is gradually failing in con¬ 
sequence of pathogenic obstruction and the result¬ 
ing inflammation? Again, how can we logically ex¬ 
plain an outflow of sputum, which forms a grand 
aggregate of several times the original weight of the 
patient’s body, if not by saying, as the writer has so 
often done in these pages, that the stomach is so 
badly obstructed, diseased and disabled, that it can 
properly digest only a small part of the food; that the 
balance of the ingesta is only partially liquefied; that 
this imperfectly elaborated material finds its way 
into the circulation in the shape of hemialbumose, 
and that this is either transformed into tubercles or 
partially decomposed and eventually discharged in 
the shape of sputum ? How much more reasonable is 
it to thus conclude, than to suppose, as we heretofore 
have done, that the patient is suffering from “exces¬ 
sive retrograde tissue metamorphosis” (that his 
tissues are being dissolved faster than they can be 
repaired), and that the resulting debris is cast out in 
the shape of the phthisical expectorate? How rea¬ 
sonable, not to say incontestable, is the writer’s con¬ 
tention that consumption depends not alone upon the 
infective germ, but, as a rule, upon both the germ and 
the soil in which the germ propagates; namely, patho¬ 
gen ! And how evident is the truth of the further con¬ 
tention, that the fact that the soil precedes the germ 
involves the implication that the former is the greater 



480 


PULMONARY CONSUMPTION 


of the two causes on which the disease depends! And 
if it be true that pathogen is the soil on which the 
propagation of the bacillus tuberculosis depends, and 
it certainly is, who will dispute the still further con¬ 
tention that the elimination of pathogen is the fore¬ 
most of all remedial requirements ? 

The consumptive suffers from both cold and heat 
—from a cold exterior and a hot interior . His extrem¬ 
ities and superficies in general are cold and chill, 
while his internal organs in general and the stomach 
and lungs in particular, are being consumed by an 
internal fire, which starts in with pathogen as the 
fuel^ and the microbe as the spark and grows more 
and more intense until the subjacent tissues become 
involved in the conflagration. 

The effort of the living organism to get rid of the 
death-dealing pathogen is unique, sublime and well- 
sustained, but unsuccessful, as a rule. Here, as else¬ 
where, in nature, the result equals the force divided 
by the resistance, and inasmuch as the forces elimi- 
nant are constantly decreasing while the resistance 
pathogenic is constantly increasing, it follows, that in 
the absence of appropriate medication; namely, 
measures which will eliminate the offending material 
(pathogen), a fatal result is only a question of time. 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

PURPURA VARIOLOSA. 

Purpura Variolosa is the rarest of all forms of 
smallpox and the most appalling of all inflammatory 
diseases. The awfulness of this disease is depicted 
upon every part of the anatomy of the sufferer. It 
finds outward expression in the writhings of its vic¬ 
tims in consequence of pain; in conjunctival echy- 
mosis of the wildest and most impressive order; in 
the petechial spots that appear on the chest, on the 
abdomen, in crural regions and in the flexures of thfe 
limbs; in the bounding pulsations of the cervical ar¬ 
teries and in the fires of a consuming and unquench¬ 
able fever. Variolosa confluens, or confluent small¬ 
pox, is appalling to the beholder and a fearful men¬ 
ace to the life of the patient, but experience has shown 
that there is a ray of hope for the sufferer. But there 
is none for the victims of purpura variolosa. The 
awfulness of this disease is written in the fact that 
the life of every victim thereof is blotted out before 
the variolous eruption can appear. 

In the light of the writer’s contention it is not at 
all difficult to perceive that this form of smallpox is 
nothing more nor less than malignant scorbutus 
(scurvy) complicated with and greatly aggravated 
by the contagium of variola. Picture to yourself a 
powerful man with a powerful heart-action and with 
% circulation desperately overloaded with material 

481 


482 


PURPURA VARIOLOSA 


which has lingered in the systemic channels until it 
has become so extremely unstable that it is as near as 
anything can be to the point of spontaneous combus¬ 
tion—that eminently coagulable, combustible and 
caloriferous material which has now been pointed out 
and denominated pathogen—then imagine, if you can, 
what will happen when this widely distributed sub¬ 
stance becomes impregnated with the greatest of all 
the coagulating and decomposing agents, perhaps, 
with which we have to contend, namely, the contagium 
of variola. Behold in imagination the sudden trans¬ 
formation of the pathogen that is wending its way 
through the capillaries of all parts of the body into a 
thick coagulum; see the heart throbbing with fearful 
power and rapidity in the attempt to dislodge the 
offending materials, obstructive and infectious, and 
to keep the stream of life in motion; see the blood pil¬ 
ing up, as it were, against the coagula that dispute its 
passage through the capillaries; behold the vessel 
walls yield more and more to the internal pressure 
until the blood escapes through the meshes of the 
vessel walls, spurting at every pulsation into the in¬ 
terstitial spaces, into the joints, into the medullary 
cavities of the bones, into the viscera of the chest, the 
abdomen and the pelvis, and into even the vitreous 
humor of the eyes. Then picture to yourself the fact 
that the material upon which this appalling and wide¬ 
spread intersystemic haemorrhage depends is all 
ablaze with the fire of inflammation—that it is being 
decomposed at a fearful rate and with a fearful dis¬ 
play of heat—do these things in addition to a careful 



VILENESS OF PATHOGEN 


483 


study of the foregoing examples and you will see and 
know and never forget what a vile thing pathogen 
really is, and what the discovery of its nature, origin 
and modus operandi means to the human race. 
Moreover, you will see what the ability to remove it 
from the avenues of life will mean to the conscien¬ 
tious medical practitioner, as well as to the world at 
large. 

We might go on in this way until the various in¬ 
fectious, contagious and chronic diseases, one and all, 
have been similarly disposed of, for the generaliza¬ 
tion now submitted in explanation of morbid phe¬ 
nomena is sufficiently effulgent to cast its radiance 
into the deepest recesses and remotest ramifications 
of the etiological and pathological domains, the only 
exceptions being such morbid processes as are refer¬ 
able to traumatism—strains, sprains, contusions, 
lacerations and fractures—and those which are su¬ 
perinduced by poisons introduced from external 
sources. 



; CHAPTER XXXIX. 

PATHOLOGICAL COMPLICATIONS EXPLAINED. 

The Complications of Pathology have provoked a 
vast amount of research and discussion and with the 
obvious result of becoming more and more problem¬ 
atic as the years have come and gone, and it may 
safely be affirmed that no change for the better will 
ever occur until investigators cast aside the desper¬ 
ately erroneous and misleading supposition that the 
tissues are constantly being oxidized and recon¬ 
structed and that the rebuilding of the tissues is ef¬ 
fected by the so-called “primordial animal cells.” 
In short, it is absolutely necessary to dethrone the 
metabolic and leucocytic theories. I do not hesitate 
to affirm that such facts as the supervening of one 
disease upon another, and the transformation of one 
disease into another, can only be explained by assum¬ 
ing that those albuminous bodies which enter so 
largely into the clinical picture, viz., “white blood 
cells,” “epithelial cells” and “embryonal cells,” are 
not living cells, but death-dealing “foreign bodies,” 
and hence, the active cause of diseases in general, as 
their prevalence in disease naturally implies. 

The truth of this will be made evident by a care¬ 
ful perusal of the following quotations from eminent 
writers, and an unbiased study of the explanations 
which will be appended thereto. 

Hr. Thomas Cullen, of Baltimore reports as fol- 

484 


MYSTERIOUS COMPLICATIONS 


485 


lows on the subject of “ Sarcomatous Transformation 
of Myomata”: 

“This report includes several cases of myomata 
where sarcomatous changes have occurred. From the 
number of cases recorded it is evident that the disease 
is more frequent than heretofore suspected. The 
sarcoma usually develops in one of several myomata 
and may be situated in the subperitoneal interstitial 
or submucous nodule. Until recently it was supposed 
to be confined chiefly to submucous myomata. The 
gross changes are characteristic, the firm cross- 
grained myomatous tissue being replaced by a homo¬ 
geneous yellowish white growth devoid of a fibrous 
arrangement and closely resembling raw pork. De¬ 
generations in the sarcomatous tissue are frequent. 

“Histologically these growths are found to de¬ 
velop from two sources: 

“1. The connective tissue. 2. The uterine muscle. 
Those of connective tissue origin may consist: (a) 
Of spindle-shaped cells, (b) Of round cells. 

“In those derived from the muscle a direct transi¬ 
tion from the muscle fibres into the sarcomatous ones 
can be followed. Several such cases have been noted 
at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. 

“The clinical history is rather significant: A 
myomatous uterus has lain comparatively dormant 
for several years and the patient comes with a history 
of rapid uterine enlargement during the last few 
months. If the myoma has been submucous, portions 
have from time to time been expelled, “recurrent 
fibroid,” and there is a free offensive discharge. The 
patient soon becomes cachectic.”—Journal of the 
American Medical Association, Oct. 24, 1903, page 
1013-14. 



486 


PATHOLOGICAL COMPLICATIONS EXPLAINED 


Dr. J. L. Miller, of Chicago presents “a case of 

ACUTE DISSEMINATED ENCEPHALOMYELITIS/' in the fol¬ 
lowing terms: 

“ Acute disseminated encephalomyelitis manifests 
itself in one of two clinical types, viz.: As an acute 
ataxia or acute paraplegia. The ataxia type is often 
described as acute ataxia, or better, acute central 
ataxia, the latter term serving to differentiate it from 
the ataxia resulting from peripheral nerve changes. 

“Eiseman in 1863 described a case of post-typhoid 
ataxia as a result of myelitis. Leyden in 1868 re¬ 
ported a case following trauma. Westphal in 1872 
reported several cases following variola and typhoid, 
and was the first to verify his diagnosis by autopsy. 
Ebstein at the same time reported a case of speech 
and co-ordination disturbance following typhoid, and 
eight years later reported the autopsy findings on the 
same case. Pollard in 1872, under the title, 4 Case of 
Locomotor Ataxia, Beginning Suddenly and Disap¬ 
pearing Under Treatment/ described what was prob¬ 
ably a case of myelitis. During the past thirty years 
numerous cases have been reported which, with the 
pathologic investigation, have verified the findings of 
the early writers. * * * The clinical picture in many 
of these cases, including the writer’s is one of multi¬ 
ple sclerosis. Leyden formerly maintained that the 
absence of progression differentiated it from this 
condition; this has not, however, been supported by 
clinical facts, as in Ebstein’s case quoted above. In¬ 
stead of an acute process with healing and permanent 
defects, the acute onset would appear to mark the be¬ 
ginning of a chronic process, which may become 
latent, but more frequently tends to advance. Path¬ 
ologists are agreed that the anatomic findings may be 
identical with those of multiple sclerosis. The ciini- 



SUNDRY MORBID REFLEXES 


487 


cal symptoms complete the picture, and it would be 
preferable, as is insisted on by many writers, to con¬ 
sider these cases of multiple sclerosis with acute on¬ 
set.”—Journal of the American Medical Association, 
Oct. 1903, page 1015-16. 

Dr. Kenniston, of Middletown, Conn., treats of 
“plantar reflex in epilepsy with special refer¬ 
ence TO THE BABINSKI PHENOMENON,” as f olloWS: 

“There is a wide diversity of opinion among writ¬ 
ers and observers as to the nature and variety of the 
reflexes in epilepsy with brief, if any, allusion to the 
plantar reflex, which apparently either escaped ob¬ 
servation or was not recorded until within a compara¬ 
tively recent period. I find no references to the sub¬ 
ject by Gray or Dercum. Dana says: ‘Reflexes are 
decreased or lost in epilepsy immediately after an at¬ 
tack/ Osier states that ‘after the attack the reflexes 
are sometimes absent; more frequently they are in¬ 
creased and the ankle clonus can generally be ob¬ 
tained.’ Strumpell says: ‘The cutaneous reflexes 
are still suspended directly after an attack; but the 
tendon reflexes are generally somewhat exaggerated, 
although sometimes they are diminished or absent.” 

“Gowers states that ‘for a few seconds after a 
severe fit reflex action in the limbs remains absent. 
Tickling the sole no longer causes a movement of the 
leg, and the loss may involve the muscle-reflex action, 
so that the knee-jerk can no longer be obtained. In 
most cases this increase is alone to be detected. It 
may be present only on the side on which the convul¬ 
sion was most severe, i. e., on the side toward which 
the head is turned. It lasts a few minutes and then 
passes away. These phenomena are probably the re¬ 
sult of temporary exhaustion of the centers concerned 
—of the muscle-reflex center in the case of loss; of the 



488 


PATHOLOGICAL COMPLICATIONS EXPLAINED 


controlling structures (the terminations of the py¬ 
ramidal fibres) in the case of excess/ Bevan Lewis 
says that 1 certain seizures are inclonus, the latter im¬ 
mediately succeeding or following a few minutes 
after the fit. In contrast there are instances where 
the knee-jerk is completely lost after a severe fit, 
reappearing slowly in the course of four or five min¬ 
utes. ’ He does not mention the plantar reflex. 

“ Collier in 40 epileptics found the extensor reflex 
present in 38 cases and absent in 2 cases. After every 
fit of severe convulsions, lasting any length of time, 
the extensor response was found and lasted for some 
time. In a patient who had fourteen severe fits in 
forty hours the extensor response was always present, 
persisting for seven hours after the last attack, when 
the flexor response returned. Walton and Paul 
found the plantar reflex absent in 7 out of 18 cases 
tested. Eskridge in 100 cases of epilepsy found the 
‘ plantar reflex present in 93 and absent in 7. In 21 
cases subsequently observed the flexor response was 
present in 18 cases and irregular in 3. In reply to a 
letter of inquiry in regard to the ‘irregular’ response, 
Dr. Eskridge writes: ‘ The irregularity consisted in 
the plantar reflex being neither distinct extension or 
flexion. In neither was there a distinct extensor re¬ 
flex, or Babinski sign, but there was a flexion of the 
outer toe generally, and in some, one or two, the 
smaller toes only would flex. The cases were not ob¬ 
served directly after a seizure, but during the in¬ 
terval, when the patient had resumed his normal con¬ 
dition. I have not had an opportunity since I have 
been observing the plantar reflex to investigate for 
the presence or absence of the Babinski sign imme¬ 
diately after the convulsions. In most cases of 
epilepsy where plantar reflex has been present it has 
been flexion in character; in many cases of epilepsy 



MORE REFLEX PUZZLES 


489 


plantar reflex has been absent. When the patients 
have been on full doses of bromids the plantar reflex 
has been invariably absent and usually the knee- 
jerks also.’ 

“Oppenheim does not allude to the plantar reflex 
in epilepsy, but says 4 the reflexes are abolished dur¬ 
ing the attack, and the loss of reflex excitability may 
last somewhat longer than the attack.’ It is inter¬ 
esting to quote in full his description of the plantar 
reflex. ‘By this term we understand the phenome¬ 
non in which excitation of the sole of the foot pro¬ 
duces a movement in which the foot is suddenly 
drawn back. Naturally every form of excitation may 
produce this movement—touch, hot or cold applica¬ 
tions, tickling, etc. The stronger the stimulation the 
stronger the reflex. The common form is a dorsal 
flexion (extension?) of the foot and toes; a plantar 
flexion occurs rarely. A contraction of the tensor 
fasciae latae may be produced by excitation of the 
sole. In extreme cases not only the foot, but the whole 
limb may be drawn back by flexion at the hip and 
knee. The intensity of the reflex varies. Many per¬ 
sons show a response only to very strong excitation, 
as deep pricking with a needle. Considerable varia¬ 
tion exists among individuals as to their sensitive¬ 
ness to tickling and the reflex produced thereby. We 
can increase the intensity of a reflex by prolongation 
of the stimulus or rapid repetitions of single 
excitations . 9 

“L. Pierce Clark says: ‘Since the discovery of 
the cortical motor area and the pyramidal tracts it 
has, been generally admitted that without the cortex 
there can be no epilepsy, and the impulses from the 
cortex must travel to the peripheral nerves along the 
pyramidal paths, but beyond this nearly everything 
is still in dispute, and the investigations of different 



490 


PATHOLOGICAL COMPLICATIONS EXPLAINED 


workers are so variant as to make it impossible to 
harmonize their conflicting views and researches. 
Cestan and LeSourd discuss at length the clinical 
value of the ‘toe phenomenon’ of Babinski, and give 
the result, among other diseases of the nervous sys¬ 
tem, of examination of a number of cases of epilepsy. 
Babinski maintained that there was a close clinical 
connection between the toe phenomenon and ‘ spinal 
epilepsy, ’ mainly because the toe phenomenon showed 
as the first symptom of pyramidal involvement in 
disease of the nervous system. Cestan and LeSourd 
therefore hold with Babinski that in partial epilep¬ 
sies dependent upon organic changes in the pyramids 
the toe phenomenon is of great importance in diagno¬ 
sis. This is especially valuable when we remember 
that even now many organic lesions upon which the 
so-called idiopathic epilepsies really depend go un¬ 
recognized because of the great difficulties which sur¬ 
round their detection.’’—Journal of the American 
Medical Association, March 21, 1903, pages 756-57. 
By permission of the Editor. 

The Editor of the Journal of the A. M. A. treats 
of the “Stokes-Adams Disease,” as follows: 

“In spite of the fact that this remarkable clinical 
condition was described by Adams in the Dublin Hos¬ 
pital Reports as early as 1872 and much more fully 
by Stokes in his article entitled, ‘Observations on 
Some Cases of Permanently Slow Pulse,’ in the Dub¬ 
lin Quarterly Journal of Medical Science in 1846, too 
little attention has been paid to it by the profession 
at large—so little noticed, indeed, that many good 
practitioners of today scarcely know what is meant 
by the term. 

“The disease, or rather symptom complex—for 
the anatomic lesions are not constant nor the etiology 




THE SLOW PULSE MYSTERY 


491 


uniform—is, however, by no means an infrequent 
one, and it is characterized by a group of symptoms 
which permit it to be easily recognized. The patient 
suffers from attacks of syncope, often described as 
Apoplectic attacks,’ associated with a very slow pulse 
rate—28 to 30 beats to the minute. The slow pulse 
may be due either to true or false bradycardia; oc¬ 
casionally there may be complete cardiac arrest for as 
long as half a minute, after which the heart again be¬ 
gins to beat. Accompanying the more severe attacks 
there is usually marked involvement of the vasomotor 
system, revealed by pallor, vomiting and sweating, 
and sometimes by numbness and tingling—symptoms 
resembling closely those which occur in angina 
pectoris. 

“The nervous features of th$ disease are those 
which are most troublesome to jthe patient, and con¬ 
cerning which he consults a physician. Complaint is 
made of attacks of dizziness and) staggering without 
known cause, or there may be sudden ‘fainting spells’ 
with complete loss of consciousness. In some in¬ 
stances the symptoms resemble closely an attack of 
apoplexy; there is deep coma with loud, stertorous 
breathing and facial congestion, but the pseudo- 
apoplectic nature of the attack is shown by the ab¬ 
sence of consecutive paralysis. Occasionally actual 
epileptiform seizures occur. 

“Three groups of cases are distinguished: 1, A 
Post-febrile group; 2, a neurotic group, and 3, an 
arterio-sclerotic group. By far the majority of the 
cases met with belong to this third group. The path¬ 
ology of the affection is as yet quite unknown. The 
cases are largely confined to the period of advanced 
life, though occasionally a young individual is at¬ 
tacked. The prospect of recovery, once the severer 
nervous symptoms have appeared, is unfavorable. 



492 


PATHOLOGICAL COMPLICATIONS EXPLAINED 


The attacks may go on occurring, however, for years. 
Death is, as a rule, sudden in one of the seizures. The 
most that can be done in the way of treatment is to 
attempt to prevent the progress of an underlying 
arteriosclerosis when that exists. In the syncopal 
attacks nitrate of amyl may be used. 

“Stokes-Adams disease has in recent years begun 
to attract the attention of a number of the ablest 
clinicians in this country and abroad, and it is to be 
hoped that we shall ere long have new light thrown 
on its etiology and pathogenesis. Among the more 
valuable articles dealing with the subject are those by 
Huchard in France, Hofmann in Germany and Osier 
and Edes in this country.”—Journal of the American 
Medical Association, Oct. 17,1903, page 269. By per¬ 
mission of the Editor. 

Dr. Leo Loeb of Montreal treats of the origin of 
tumors in the following terms: 

“The problem of the origin of tumors is a part of 
the physiology of growth. In explaining malignant 
tumors pathologists made use of two of the most ob¬ 
vious instances of ordinary tissue growth, namely, 
embryonic development and regenerative phenomena. 
Accordingly two theories have been advanced to ex¬ 
plain tumor growth. The first one explains tumors as 
originating from embryonal cells, either actually de¬ 
tached from their normal surroundings, or at least 
functionally detached. With or without changing 
their place these cells do not take part in the further 
development of their neighbors; they remain in an 
embryonal condition, are not functionally active as 
the normal surrounding tissue is until at* a later pe¬ 
riod they begin to make use of their latent, stored up 
forces. Being locally or functionally disconnected 
they do not find the tension of the neighboring cells 



TUMOR COMPLICATIONS 


493 


opposed to them and they can now grow indefinitely. 
This is, in the main, Cohnheim’s theory, especially as 
it has lately been further developed by Wilms. This 
theory, therefore, combines the two factors named 
above. It makes use of the embryonic character of 
the tumor producing cells, and of the fact that these 
cells are disconnected, implanted, as it were, in a 
strange environment. The lack of the normal ten¬ 
sion or the regenerative factor of growth is added to 
the embryonal factor. 

“Some clinical facts seem to support this theory. 
Many mixed tumors suggest such an explanation as 
to their origin. There seem to be tumors representing 
transitional formations between the teratomata on 
the one side and simple tumor, like sarcoma, on the 
other side. But it is difficult to explain many tumors, 
especially many carcinomata, on this basis. There¬ 
fore,'Ribbert, though accepting the first theory as 
sufficient for many cases, added a supplementary the¬ 
ory, making sole use of the regenerative factor for 
the explanation of tumors. Through inflammatory 
processes adult cells become separated from their 
normal ground. Cells which are no longer subjected 
to the inhibiting influence of their neighboring cells 
begin, as ordinary wound healing shows us, to grow, 
until they find their normal connection with cells of 
the same kind. Cells which are perfectly detached 
from their normal ground .will probably never find 
their normal environment producing the necessary 
tension and will therefore be able to grow indefinitely. 

“After having thus defined the two factors under¬ 
lying these two theories, we have to consider how far 
these conceptions really adequately explain the 
growth of tumors. 

4 4 The first problem to investigate is: How do dis¬ 
placed embryonic cells actually behave ? A number 



494 


PATHOLOGICAL COMPLICATIONS EXPLAINED 


of facts have been ascertained through experiments 
carried on in the last twenty, and especially in the last 
ten years, which to some extent enable us to answer 
this question. Still, our knowledge is yet limited, 
especially because some facts have been found in 
certain species of animals only, and in applying the 
results of these experimental facts we have to do it 
with this restriction. Let us first consider what be¬ 
comes of the earliest embryonic cells, whose normal 
relation to their neighboring cells has been disturbed. 
If one-sided pressure is" exerted on the segmenting 
cells of the egg of a frog, e. g., so that the normal suc¬ 
cession of cleavage is altered and the relation of the 
first cleavage cells to each other is different from their 
ordinary relation, a normal embryo ultimately re¬ 
sults. . If the first blastomeres are entirely separated 
from each other each one develops a normal though 
smaller embryo, the number of cells formed being 
proportionately smaller, their size remaining un¬ 
altered. This holds good absolutely only up to the 
four-cell stage; isolated cells from the eight and six¬ 
teen cell stage still being the normal development, and 
some of the blastomeres of the eight-cell stage run 
through the whole course of their development, but 
the blastomeres derived from these later stages stop 
at an earlier stage of their development. Thus the 
blastomeres derived from later stages differ in their 
fate from earlier blastomeres, not as was to be ex¬ 
pected by the former developing more specified parts 
of the whole, but instead, they form the first stages of 
whole embryos. No conclusive experiments have 
been made with regard to the fate of isolated blasto¬ 
meres of later states. 

“Sufficiently large pieces of blastulae also can 
develop perfect larvae. At a somewhat later 
stage certain parts of the embryo must be present in 



SUNDRY SPECULATIONS 


495 


the cut-out piece if the gastrulation shall take place. 
A certain morphogenetic localization has perhaps al¬ 
ready taken place at this stage. Very few data are 
at hand for later stages. The observation of Roux, 
however, might be mentioned, who found very fre¬ 
quently in frog embryos with a closed medullary 
canal, isolated cells of the character of the much 
earlier morula stage. 

“Of importance are the recent experiments of 
Spemann. He found in triton at a stage when the 
medullary plate is already indicated, that by tighten¬ 
ing a ligature across the medullary plate the anterior 
end of the posterior part will form a head just as the 
anterior part will do. We see that under these 
changed conditions ear vesicles can be formed from 
parts which, if the development would have proceeded 
normally, would not have formed any part of the 
head. That, however, does not yet prove that any 
isolated cell, of an embryo at this stage is able to 
form these structures, but probably the connection of 
these cells with a large part of the embryo is neces¬ 
sary for this result. * * * Let us now consider what 
conclusions might be drawn from these facts with 
regard to the formation of tumors. There are tumors 
consisting of a number of different tissues, with a 
limited growth, more or less resembling an irregu¬ 
larly formed embryo. Such teratomata might be de¬ 
rived from a detached blastomere, undergoing after¬ 
wards an autonomous development. Also Spe¬ 
mann ? s experiment might help us to explain certain 
tumors of a similar complex character. A wound or 
tear in the embryonic tissue of a later period might 
give rise to unexpected ‘heterotopic’ formation, as 
e. g., to a brain-like tumor, at the caudal part of the 
spinal column. 

4 ‘ But already here we find difficulties. In the first 



496 


PATHOLOGICAL COMPLICATIONS EXPLAINED 


place we find these complicated tumors, although not 
exclusively, still in the majority of cases in the ovary 
and in the testicle. The explanation advanced to meet 
this difficulty is not sufficient and not quite satisfac¬ 
tory.”—Journal of the A. M. A. for April 11, 1903, 
page 974. By permission of the Editor. 

In the absence of the foregoing theory of patho- 
genosis the complications referred to by these writ¬ 
ers, and all other writers, for that matter would con¬ 
tinue to be hopelessly bewildering; with its aid they 
may be not only easily and perfectly explained, but 
remedied to a marvelous extent, as the following in¬ 
terpretations of the facts and a proper attempt to 
remove the offending pathogen will show. 

Let us now consider a few of the more important 
facts referred to in these quotations, beginning with 
the first, and proceeding seriatim. 

I am not sufficiently familiar with the anatomical 
characters of the myomata, the tumors referred to by 
Cullen, to speak authoritatively on the subject of 
their formation, but will venture to suggest that they 
owe their development to the infiltration of the tis¬ 
sues with both nutrient matter and plastic pathogen, 
and that this stuffing of the tissues is attributable to 
the incarceration of both digested and partially di¬ 
gested material between two opposing forces, the one 
being an area in which pathogen had become im¬ 
pacted, and the other the oncoming blood-stream. In 
other words, it appears to be an undeniable fact that 
the hypernutrition, or more properly, the pseudo¬ 
nutrition, that we see in the development of the myo- 



SARCOMA EXPLAINED 


497 


mata is due to pathogenic obstruction of the capil¬ 
laries and a consequential blood pressure which is 
great enough to inflict the two-fold injury of stuffing 
the interstitial spaces with hemialbumose (incipient 
pathogen) and the cells of the contiguous muscles 
with nutrient matter. The enlargement thus pro¬ 
duced appears to lie dormant for a time; but subse¬ 
quent events go to show that it is not dormant—that 
the integrity of both the digestive apparatus and the 
invaded tissues is being gradually undermined. I 
refer the more especially to the fact that the time 
finally comes when the myoma awakens from its leth¬ 
argy, so to speak, and begins a rapid growth and a 
change of character—the sarcomatous transforma¬ 
tion to which Dr. Cullen refers. In the light of the 
hypothesis that the sarcomatous growth owes its 
origin to faulty digestion and the consequent incar¬ 
ceration of pathogen and granulation tissue, or di¬ 
gested and partially digested material, it appears 
perfectly natural that Dr. Cullen should remark, as 
he did, that it has the appearance of “raw pork”; 
that “Degenerations in the sarcomatous tissues are 
frequent”; that “a direct transition from the muscle 
fibres to the sarcomatous ones can be followed”; that 
“The patient soon becomes cachectic,” and that “a 
free offensive discharge takes place.” Further com¬ 
ment is scarcely necessary. 

PATHOLOGICAL CONDITIONS EXPLAINED. 

The causation of such complications as those re¬ 
ferred to by Dr. Miller under the heading, “A Case 
of Acute Disseminated Encephalomyelitis,” must be 



498 


PATHOLOGICAL COMPLICATIONS EXPLAINED 


clear to the reader of the foregoing explanations of 
morbid phenomena. It may not be amiss, however, 
to emphasize them by repeating that all inflammation, 
whether acute or chronic, local or general, save that 
which is of traumatic origin, is due to obstruction, 
and that pathogen is responsible for all non-trau- 
matic obstruction, including even that which is at¬ 
tributed to sedimentation. For the fact is that sedi¬ 
mentary materials of all kinds owe their origin to the 
decomposition within the body of either pathogen or 
the normal waste matters (urine, bile, perspiration) 
and that the retention of these waste products is due 
to pathogenic obstruction of their respective outlets. 

The attending and no less problematic phenomena 
of “acute ataxia/’ “acute paraplegia,” and both sin¬ 
gle and “multiple sclerosis” may be similarly ex¬ 
plained. Since it is a well known fact that ataxic 
symptoms are due to either congestion or sclerosis 
of the spinal cord, and since it has been found that 
pathogen is at the bottom of all congestion, malnu¬ 
trition, inflammation and spasmodic action, it is 
nothing more than natural, that ataxic symptoms 
should follow such diseases as typhoid, variola and 
encephalomyelitis. 

Dr. Kenniston is quite correct in saying that: 
“ There is a wide diversity of opinion among writers 
and observers as to the nature and variety of the re¬ 
flexes in epilepsy.” He might have made the further 
remark that there is a wide diversity of opinion as to 
the nature of epilepsy, itself. The fact is, that the 
explanation of that appalling symptom complex 




THE KEY TO EPILEPSY 


499 


which is known to science as epilepsy has completely 
baffled the very elect of the medical profession, as 
stated in a preceding paragraph. 

The literature of epilepsy fairly bristles with 
facts, but not so much as a single one of these facts 
is satisfactorily explained therein. The existing situ¬ 
ation in this respect is authoritatively expressed as 
follows: “As regards the immediate cause of the 
epileptic paroxysm we possess no positive know¬ 
ledge.” Flint’s Practice of Medicine, page 796, 
1896. A little further on this author says: “In a 
large proportion of the cases of epilepsy no sources 
of centric or eccentric irritation are apparent.”—By 
permission of the author. 

These two passages amount to a frank admission 
that neither the immediate nor the remote cause of 
epilepsy is known to the medical profession. On 
page 766 the author declares that “Epilepsy, as one 
of the neuroses, is a functional affliction: that is, it 
is not necessarily connected with any appreciable 
lesions. ’ ’ Dr. Flint has certainly erred in saying that 
there is no appreciable lesion and no evidence of irri¬ 
tation in epilepsy. For it is an undeniable fact that 
in every case of the kind there is a very appreciable 
lesion and a perfectly apparent source of irritation. 
I refer to the fact that the pharynx of every epileptic 
is the seat of chronic inflammation, which implies 
that the stomach is in a similar condition and that its 
more immediate dependencies, the nerves and the 
nervous centers, are the victims of a ceaseless irri¬ 
tation. Let any one examine the oral cavity of any 



500 


PATHOLOGICAL COMPLICATIONS EXPLAINED 


epileptic and inquire into his gastronomic perform¬ 
ances and it will be found that there is abundant evi¬ 
dence to the effect that the primary lesion in every 
case of the kind is that of gastric pathogenosis— 
namely, tumefied and inflamed surfaces and a vora¬ 
cious appetite, the unmistakable evidences of gas¬ 
tritis and its sequel, nervous irritation; that this is 
followed by systemic pathogenosis—the crowding of 
the circulation with pathogen; that the nervous 
system is compelled, therefore, to put forth its every 
effort in order to withstand the irritation and to keep 
the pathogen-laden blood in motion; that the time 
finally comes when this double and highly strenuous 
duty cannot be successfully performed, and that at 
this juncture the blood will be forced by the conjoint 
action of muscular spasm and atmospheric pressure 
from peripheral to central regions—a proposition 
the correctness of wiiich is evinced by those symptoms 
of the on-coming seizure which are so familiar to the 
professional mind—namely, a pallid countenance, 
and that sense of ascending coolness which is termed 
the ‘ 4 aura epileptica.’ In short, it will be seen that 
pathogenic obstruction of the peripheral vessels leads 
to exhaustion of the vaso-motor system; that the 
blood is forced by atmospheric pressure from exter¬ 
nal to internal parts; that the nervous centers are for 
the moment overpowered by the blood-pressure; that 
the extreme irritation thus produced finds expression 
in the spasmodic and over-production of nervous en¬ 
ergy, and that this in turn finds expression in the 
spasmodic action of the muscles. 



SLOW PULSE EXPLAINED 


501 


It will be found upon due examination that every 
other fact of this puzzling disease may be accounted 
for in a similar manner—that the ataxic symptoms 
are due to pathogenic infiltration of the posterior 
columns of the spinal cord; that pathogen produces 
the dementia by depriving the cerebral cells of their 
just quota of nutrient matter, and so on to the end of 
the list. 

With regard to the slow pulse referred to in the 
above quoted editorial it may safely be affirmed that 
it cannot be explained apart from the proposition 
that pathogen is the active cause of diseases in gen¬ 
eral and of malnutrition in particular. Let it be 
realized, as it certainly should, that the digestion of 
every victim of Stokes-Adams Disease is seriously 
impaired and that his blood is loaded with plastic 
pathogen, and the cloud which has so long obscured 
the causation of this singular phenomenon will be 
swept away. For it will be perfectly apparent that 
the slow pulse is attributable to a failure of cardiac 
nutrition, and that this is the result of pathogenic 
obstruction of the cardiac capillaries. It will also be 
seen upon due examination that the complicating cir¬ 
cumstances of every such case are explainable in the 
same way. 

Dr. Loeb stumbles in starting, as all believers in 
the leucocyte addendum to the cell theory have done, 
in that he begins by affirming that: “The problem 
of the origin of tumors is a part of the physiology of 
growth/’ For those albuminous particles that*he 
and other writers have regarded as “embryonal cells” 



502 


PATHOLOGICAL COMPLICATIONS EXPLAINED 


are not cells, and, hence, have never been “ detached 
from their normal surroundings. ’ ’ They are, on the 
contrary, nothing more nor less than dead and decay¬ 
ing organic matter, as I have repeatedly affirmed and 
demonstrated. By reason of their close resemblance 
to the cells of the developing embryo, these cell-like 
particles of dead matter have deceived the very elect 
of the medical profession, not the least of whom is 
Dr. Loeb. 

The doctrine of pathogenosis renders unnecessary 
such a strained effort as that which is comprehended 
in the complex and obviously inadequate hypothesis 
that Dr. Loeb has referred to. For it involves such 
a full and logical explanation of the causation of dis¬ 
eases in general and of such fundamental and far- 
reaching disturbances as congestion, inflammation 
and unbalanced circulation in particular, that the 
mind of the most exacting inquirer may rest in per¬ 
fect peace, as the following chapters will show. It 
must, at any rate, suffice for the present to say that, 
so long as we regard the various colorless albu¬ 
minoid particles that we see in the blood as normal 
elements thereof, just so long will the causation and 
workings of disease be enshrouded in mystery. 

For many years medical writers have been puzzled 
by the “hyaline cylinders,’’ “tubules,” and “lobu- 
lated masses” that enter into the composition of what 
Billroth has called “Cylindroma,” and by the “hya¬ 
line bodies” that are spoken of by other writers. But 
every difficulty vanishes away in the light of the 
proposition, that these mysterious particles of al- 




THE LEUCOCYTE STUMBLING-BLOCK 


503 


buminoid material, are nothing more nor less than 
differing forms of pathogen. 

In short, to attempt to explain morbid phenomena 
without antagonizing the notion that the leucocyte is 
a normal element of the blood is but to be ingloriouslv 
defeated. On the other hand, to proceed in accord¬ 
ance with the proposition that the albuminoses and 
their progeny, the leucocytes and other so-called cells 
are abnormal and the active cause of disease, is but to 
succeed in both the explanation and the removal of 
morbid conditions. 

In conclusion I would earnestly and respectfully 
submit: 

1. That the fact that the white blood corpuscle 
looks like a cell does not necessarily mean that it is 
a cell. 

2. That it was a very grave mistake to suppose, 
as the originators of the current teaching have done, 
that the leucocyte is “differentiated'’ into the com¬ 
ponent parts of the living organism. 

3. That the differentiation hypothesis has never 
been substantiated by the observance of such a 
change. 

4. That the hypothesis in question is discredited 
by the well-known fact that the cells of “ granulation 
tissue’’ spring directly from the tissue on which they 
are formed—that they do not first exist as independ¬ 
ent organisms and then attach themselves to the pre¬ 
viously existing tissues, but grow out of them as buds 
grow out of a previously existing tree or plant. 



504 


PATHOLOGICAL COMPLICATIONS EXPLAINED 


5. That the kindred doctrine of “vital duplica¬ 
tion/ ? as applied to the leucocyte, is not vital dupli¬ 
cation, but a matter of disintegration, as the irregu¬ 
larities thereof surely indicate. 

6. That the ‘‘amoeboid movement” of the leu¬ 
cocyte is not animal locomotion, but a result of 
disintegration. 

7. That the “protoplasm” from which the white 
blood corpuscle is formed is not living protoplasm, 
but dead and practically useless organic matter—one 
form of that arch-destroyer of human life now 
pointed out and denominated pathogen. 

8. That while it is an incontestible proposition 
that plants and animals are made of cells, it is an 
equally incontestible proposition that those cell-like 
particles we find in the blood are not living cells but 
differing forms of pathogen. 

In short, it has come to be perfectly evident that 
we have fallen into the error of mistaking similarity 
for identity, and that it were the part of wisdom as 
well as justice to admit that such is the case, and to 
plead, as we have a perfect right to do, that our 
blundering involves a case of “mistaken identity” of 
the highly excusable order. In other words, our mis¬ 
interpretation of the facts in question finds extenu¬ 
ation in the well-recognized fact that we have been 
compelled to study vital phenomena, normal and ab¬ 
normal, entirely apart from a definite knowledge of 
the fundamentals of health and disease . 

It is a plainly evident fact that in the foregoing 



A HINT TO THE WISE SUFFICIENT 


505 


attempts to explain morbid processes in the light of 
the doctrine of pathogenosis I have indulged to ex¬ 
traordinary extent in quoting from our standard and 
periodical literature, and to a very moderate extent 
in explanatory propositions. It may be well, there¬ 
fore, to here state that I preferred, in the first place, 
to present the facts of the existing situation in the 
words of those who are in the forefront of the battle 
with disease, and, in the next place, to express by 
means of limited explanatory remarks my confidence 
in the ability of the profession to understand and 
apply the principles of the new etiology and 
pathology. 



CHAPTER XL. 

THE PERILS OF CHILDHOOD EXPLAINED. 

Having pointed out the great underlying cause of 
disease and its modus operandi, comprehending what 
I believe to be an incontestible explanation of the 
greatest problems of the pathological realm, I shall 
have no trouble, I believe, to unravel to the satisfac¬ 
tion of the profession the mystery involved in both 
the fearful mortality of child-life and the fact that 
certain disorders formerly confined almost entirely 
to the much later periods of life, have in recent years 
invaded the sacred confines of babyhood and early 
childhood, destroying in a short time, and in spite 
of every apparently possible defense, the dearesl? 
treasures of the marital relation. 

Not in any preceding century of human history 
has there been so much done with the specific purpose 
of safe-guarding and advancing the manifold in¬ 
terests of infancy and later child-life, as there has 
been in the age in which we live. 

To the credit of twentieth-century civilization it 
may be said that it has given rise to numerous move¬ 
ments and organizations for the study and protection 
of budding humanity; that the public schools are be¬ 
ing placed under medical supervision; that the cor¬ 
rection of the child-labor abuses is being agitated and 
carried out, and that child-study circles and mothers 
clubs are springing into existence in all parts of this 

506 


APPALLING MORTALITY IN CHILDHOOD 


507 


country if not in all civilized lands. In short, never 
before has there been so much effort made to pro¬ 
mote the health and general welfare of the young, as 
at the present time; and while it is true that much 
good has been accomplished in the way of improved 
sanitation, comprehending a very appreciable cur¬ 
tailment of the infectious diseases, it is also true that 
the world is confronted by the surprising and essen¬ 
tially alarming circumstance that twentieth century 
babyhood is being assaulted, so to speak, by diseases 
which have in former times been confined almost en¬ 
tirely to people well-advanced in years and worn with 
the strenuosities of life—namely, paralysis, diabetes, 
heart-disease, Bright’s disease, cretinism, myxoe- 
dema, tuberculosis and sudden deaths from unde¬ 
termined and apparently indeterminable causes, the 
expression, undetermined, having reference to the 
fact that authorities have not explained this ap¬ 
palling circumstance. 

The periodical literature of recent date contains 
many articles setting forth the fact that the above 
named diseases are assailing children varying in 
age from a few months to several years; but thus 
far not so much as a single fairly satisfactory ex- 
planataion of this surprising trend in child-history 
has appeared in print. Nevertheless, a rift has at 
last occurred in the cloud which has thus blackened 
the horizon of infantile existence—a breach in the 
hitherto unbroken obscurity through which the much 
needed light is beaming, and with sufficient power, if 
I may say it, to illumine the deepest recesses and 



508 


PERILS OF CHILDHOOD EXPLAINED 


remotest ramifications of this subdivision of the 
pathological realm. 

Having shown in the preceding chapters how path¬ 
ogen disables and finally destroys the more powerful 
specimens of the genus homo, I shall be the better 
prepared to enforce the correctness of the proposi¬ 
tion that the “slaughter of the innocents” here and 
elsewhere referred to, is due almost entirely to four 
theory-instigated mistakes: First, that the bodies 
of all living creatures are constantly being con¬ 
sumed; second, that a large amount of food is re¬ 
quired to meet the demands of both tissue-waste and 
growth; third, that in order to meet these demands 
resort must be had to those foods which contain in 
proper proportion the fourteen elements that are 
found in the body whenever it is subjected to chem¬ 
ical analysis; fourth, that the elements in question 
exist in the proper proportions in the so-called tissue¬ 
building foods—namely, meats, eggs, legumes, oat¬ 
meal, rye bread and whole wheat flour—substances 
which are “rich in” those elements which render 
grown people very poor in resistive power, as I have 
already shown, and, hence, must necessarily disable 
and destroy the more delicate elements of the social 
fabric. 

The theories above referred to have been so widely 
promulgated and so deeply impressed upon the 
minds of the general public that all classes, learned 
and unlearned, are feeding their children and even 
their babies excessively and on foods which can have 
no other effect than that of producing just such dis- 



IMPORTANT HINTS OVERLOOKED 


509 


orders as those above referred to—namely, those 
articles and preparations which have in recent years 
been so extensively exploited as strength-givers and 
tissue-builders. 

The hint involved in the fact that a baby is tooth¬ 
less until it is about a year old has evidently escaped 
the notice of the parents and dietetic philosophers of 
modern times. The fact that a calf can walk the day 
on which it is born, together with the further fact 
that a babe cannot do so until it is a year old, are 
perfectly pregnant with meaning, and yet it appears 
that this meaning has completely escaped both the 
medical profession and the general public. 

Instead of noting and acting in accordance with 
these hints, the people have gone on for centuries in 
the attempt to rear motherless infants upon milk 
which is adapted not to delicate babyhood, but to far 
more robust calfhood. And in addition to the hazard¬ 
ous custom of feeding them upon unmodified cow’s 
milk is that of feeding them upon a supposedly very 
“rich,” but actually very poor combination consist¬ 
ing of about two parts of milk to one of cream. But 
worst of all is the practically universal blunder of 
feeding both babies and small children upon those 
cereal preparations to which I have already referred 
as having been extensively advertised as health-foods 

_articles the use of which in childhood is condemned 

by the attending results, consisting, as they do, of 
corpulency, morbidity, misery and mortality. 

For centuries the infantile elements of the social 
fabric have protested to the utmost extent of their 



BIO 


PERILS OF CHILDHOOD EXPLAINED 


ability against these well-meant but eminently hurt¬ 
ful mistakes, but in vain. In all civilized lands these 
delicate specimens of humanity have lifted up their 
voices against these theory-bred wrongs, but their 
vociferations, great and continuous as they have 
been, were unequal to the task of breaking the spell 
that plausible theories and hoary-headed customs 
have imposed upon their guardians—a truth that 
fills me with regrets, and because I have in times 
past been as completely spell-bound and, per conse¬ 
quence, as guilty of the wrongs in question as any 
other person. 

But sad to say, the average mother, being oblivious 
of the real meaning of obesity, flatters herself that 
all is well with her dear babe, when the truth is she 
is being confronted with the evidences of an impend¬ 
ing disaster, as the practically invariable superven¬ 
tion of morbid conditions, when rightly interpreted, 
goes to show. In short, the current opinion regard¬ 
ing nutrition and the evidences thereof is radically 
wrong and per consequence the civilized world is 
confronted by the appalling, heartrending and dis¬ 
crediting circumstance that about one-half of all that 
is born of woman goes down to death before the ten¬ 
der age of five years is reached—a fatality w T hich 
finds no parallel in the remaining departments of 
animal life; which has remained practically constant 
for a century or more, and which can only be ex¬ 
plained, as I verily believe, by assuming that it is 
due to improper alimentation, and that this event¬ 
uates in the production of pathogen and some one 



REWARDS OF PROPER FEEDING 


511 


or more of its manifold effects—congestion, irrita¬ 
tion, inflammation, infection, tissue-starvation, mal¬ 
nutrition, defective elimination, spasmodic action, to 
say nothing of those graver forms of disease above 
referred to as having been recently added to the ills 
of child-life. 

HOW TO FEED THE AVERAGE BABY. 

I have demonstrated by actual experiment that 
during the first three months of its life a baby of 
overage size at birth will not only thrive, but be 
healthy, contented and happy on four meals a day— 
three hours apart and nothing during the night— 
composed of cow’s milk, from which the cream has 
been removed, and an equal quantity of pure water; 
that during the next three months one-third w 7 ater 
and two-thirds milk are the proper proportions; that 
during the remainder of the first year one-fourth 
water and three-fourths, milk are sufficient and that 
at the end of the year, or about the time for it to begin 
teething and walking, undiluted milk is sufficient. 

A babe thus fed sleeps all night, is never sick, and 
is as playful as a kitten. Every legitimate evidence 
of health and prosperity is exhibited. That illegiti¬ 
mate, though commonly accepted evidence of physi¬ 
cal well-being, which consists of a large accumula¬ 
tion of fat is practically absent, as it certainly should 
be, the facts and principles set forth in this and other 
chapters of this work being the criteria. 

The percentage of babies which will require a 
larger amount or a stronger quality of food than that 



512 


PERILS OF CHILDHOOD EXPLAINED 


above described, is in my humble but apparently 
well-founded opinion, quite small. 

In consequence of this management during baby¬ 
hood and of a judicious increase as time passes of the 
quantity and quality of food, the growth of the body 
is all that can reasonably be desired, while the intel¬ 
lectual development is scarcely less than unprece¬ 
dented. 


A COMMENDABLE TENDENCY. 

The fact is now being recognized by physicians 
of ability that stuffing should be supplanted by fast¬ 
ing, not of the irrational, but of the rational order. 
The Dietetic and Hygienic Gazette (Mar. 1908) has 
given utterance to some splendid remarks in this 
regard, among which are the following: 

‘‘Fasting has been empirically used since the 
early dawn of history. * * * There will be op¬ 

position to the physician’s order to refrain from food 
of any kind for days by many, but he should insist 
upon his instructions being literal Iv carried out when 
he sees fit to issue such an order.” 

In short, it has developed that the early decline 
and untimely destruction of the human body and most 
if not all that this naturally implies is attributable 
to a want of fundamental information and the con¬ 
sequent necessity of depending for guidance upon the 
facts of experience and observation and such inter¬ 
pretations thereof as men were able under the above 
named circumstances to devise. 



OBLITERATING THE PERILS OF MATERNITY 


513 


Many years of careful study together with no little 
experimentation have convinced me that the two 
generalizations now set forth and exemplified con¬ 
stitute the ground-work of the most important and 
far-reaching revolution that the world of mankind 
has ever known or is at all likely to know—a move¬ 
ment which will register its first and greatest achieve¬ 
ments in the domains of motherhood and child-life, 
by practically obliterating the perils of maternity 
and making it as natural for the child to laugh and 
romp as it is for the birds to sing, or the kittens to 
play. 



CHAPTER XLI. 

VALIDITY OF THE NEW ETIOLOGY. 

Again we are confronted with the important and 
ever insistent question of validity. Is the new Eti¬ 
ology, or doctrine of pathogenosis, worthy of the 
confidence of the people, professional and non-pro¬ 
fessional ? Is the assertion that a single agent is the 
active cause of the multifarious facts and phenom¬ 
ena that go to make up the symptomatology of dis¬ 
ease worthy of belief ?v^ Can it be true that the vari¬ 
ous morbid processes from congestion on up to in¬ 
fection, and from this to cancer and consumption, 
owe their origin and most of their subsequent his¬ 
tory to that apparently harmless thing that is known 
to science as serum albumin ?k* Can it be possible for 
serum albumin to undergo such a variety of changes 
and to produce such a vast range of morbid effects 
as the doctrine of pathogenosis presupposes? Is 
there so much as a single valid reason for the sup¬ 
position that the plasm-like material that we find in 
the blood is not genuine protoplasm? Is the propo¬ 
sition that the “white blood corpuscle’’ is not a living 
cell, but a particle of imperfectly elaborated and 
therefore worse than useless material, worthy of con¬ 
sideration on the part of the scientific world? Can 
it be possible that such eminent investigators as those 
who framed the fundamental postulates of nine¬ 
teenth and twentieth-century medicine, were as radi¬ 
cally at variance with the truth as the new etiology 

514 


A FIRM FOUNDATION 


515 


of disease has indicated? Is it at all probable, or 
believable, that the entire scientific world of today is 
wrong in holding that the white blood corpuscle is a 
living cell, and that a single individual is right in 
affirming that the same object is a particle of lifeless 
material and the active came par excellence of 
disease ? 

That these questions are worthy of an affirmative 
answer, is a proposition which finds abundant and 
incontestible support, as I verily believe, in the logi¬ 
cal features and explanatory capabilities of the doc¬ 
trine to which these interrogations refer. 

If this be true, and it certainly seems to be, then it 
will be sufficient to call attention anew to the fact 
that the new etiology is based, in common with the 
exact sciences, upon the solid foundation of perfectly 
logical concepts—things which are not only as com¬ 
pletely open to mental verification as the basic prin¬ 
ciples of physics, chemistry and mathematics, but 
marvelously susceptible of clinical substantiation, as 
a careful consideration of the facts set forth in the 
last chapter of this work certainly indicate. For, 
nearly all the successes there reported were effected 
in behalf of those who were not only afflicted with 
so-called incurable disease, but were in extremis 
when the virtues of the new therapeusis were invoked 
in their behalf. 

THE LOGICAL AND VISIBLE EVIDENCES. 

It is scarcely less than a self-evident proposition 
that the claims of the cell-theorists have been 



616 


VALIDITY OF THE NEW ETIOLOGY 


both logically and practically exploded, and 
that the new Etiology does not rest alone upon 
metaphysical considerations, or logical concepts, but 
to a very great extent upon things which are per- 
perfectly open to ocular inspection—things micro¬ 
scopic and macroscopic. That is to say, the logic of 
the New Vital Philosophy has so completely dispelled 
the mists afforded by the Doctrine of Metabolism and 
the leucocytic subdivision of the Cell-Theory that it 
is an easy matter to see that the doctrine advanced 
in this work in explanation of the Causation of Dis¬ 
ease rests not alone upon logical concepts, but upon 
both logical and visible data. 

The logical elements of the new doctrine are: 
First, that in order to be of any service the food 
must be reduced to a perfectly dialyzable and non- 
coagulable state called peptone. Second, that the 
various particles of albuminous material that we find 
in the blood and are variously termed white cells, 
white blood corpuscles, embryonal cells, epithelial 
cells, giant cells, cancer cells, primordial animal cells, 
together with those materials which are termed bio¬ 
plasm, protoplasm, cytoplasm and germinal matter, 
are, one and all, particles of imperfectly elaborated 
organic matter. Third, that by reason of the fact 
that these things are not only very viscid, but sub¬ 
ject to coagulation, they are, one and all not only use¬ 
less, but dangerous incumberers of the circulating 
system. Fourth, that these albuminous materials 
undergo inspissation, or denaturization, the ultimate 
result in many cases being the transformation of 




THE VISIBLE EVIDENCES 


517 


these microscopic materials into such macroscopic 
objects as fibroid tumors and malignant growths. 

The visible evidences of the correctness of the new 
morbid philosophy are those materials which are 
discharged from the body in the progress of disease 
—from the mucous surfaces in the shape of catarrhal 
matter; from the gastric cavity in the form of a 
thick and extremely tenacious slime; from the lungs 
in the form of a glairy asthmatic transudate, or of a 
phthisical expectorate; from the vagina in the form 
of a leucorrheal discharge; from the urethra in the 
shape of catarrhal matter and pus corpuscles; from 
the bowels in the shape of catarrhal matter and the 
morphological elements of “amoebic dysentery’’; 
from “indolent ulcers” as a sanious discharge; from 
furuncles and carbuncles as a grumous admixture of 
pus and necrosed tissue, and from malignant growths 
as the most offensive of all foul-smelling discharges. 

Be it carefully noted and remembered that nearly 
the whole of the material thus discharged is partially 
decomposed pathogen. 

Let it not be forgotten that our failure to arrive at 
a correct conclusion regarding the causation of dis¬ 
ease is referable to two unfortunate circumstances, 
the first being our practically complete want of fun¬ 
damental knowledge, while the second is the emi¬ 
nently deceptive nature of the albumoses and of their 
morphological progeny, the various cell-like objects 
that are found in the blood. 

For the sake of giving a possibly necessary em¬ 
phasis to an important matter, attention is again 




618 


VALIDITY OF THE NEW ETIOLOGY 


called to the fact that the validity of a scientific hypo¬ 
thesis is found upon ultimate analysis to depend, 
not upon the ipse dixit of any authority, however 
eminent, nor upon the facts of experience and ob¬ 
servation, nor upon the number or character of its 
devotees, advocates and exponents, nor yet upon the 
length of time that it has escaped criticism, but upon 
its truths; its harmonies; its logical qualities; its 
simplifying attributes; its explanatory capabilities; 
the success that attends its practical application; the 
absence or rareness of contradictory occurrences and 
last, but not least, upon its ability to settle once for 
all the various questions, small and great, that be¬ 
long in the province that it professes to govern. 

And finally, be it carefully noted and remembered: 

1. That the New Vital Philosophy, the doctrine 
that explains for the first time the laws, limitations 
and requirements of life, involves two novel and emi¬ 
nently important implications; first, that all elements 
of the ingesta which are not reduced by the digestive 
process to a perfectly dialyzable and non-coagulable 
condition are vastly worse than useless; second, that 
all materials which have not been thus prepared must 
be disposed of at the cost of a corresponding amount 
of vital power, or they will interfere to a proportion¬ 
ate extent with vital operations. 

2. That the critical examination of the existing 
theories comprising chapter XIII, together with the 
New Etiology, or Doctrine of Pathogenosis, go 
to show that the living organism is actually 
clogged, disabled and wrecked in consequence of the 



THE DESTROYING ANGEL 


519 


accumulation therein of imperfectly elaborated ma¬ 
terials of various kinds—an unraveling of the prob¬ 
lems of disease which involves the unexpected and 
eminently important as well as surprising fact that 
the so-called white blood corpuscle—the very thing 
that we have long regarded as the most important 
element of the blood—is in reality, not a living cell, 
but a particle of partially elaborated organic matter 
—a globule of denaturized material which is so ex¬ 
tremely viscid and so highly coagulable that it should 
be regarded, not as a tissue-builder, but as the great¬ 
est of all tissue-destroyers, and, hence, as the “de¬ 
stroying angel” par excellence of the vital domain. 

INCONTESTIBLE DEMONSTRATION. 

I have demonstrated on many occasions, in the 
presence of many physicians and by means of many 
experiments, the most legitimate that could well be 
devised, that whenever the body is free from path¬ 
ogen it is able to withstand, not only those changes 
which are usually productive of “colds” but all kinds 
of infective organisms, the most virulent not ex¬ 
cepted. The legitimacy of the experiments to which 
I refer is evinced by the fact that they were made 
upon the human body and consisted, on the one hand, 
in exposing it to sudden and severe changes of 
temperature, and, on the other, in the introduction 
into the body of the vilest germs known to bacteri- 
ology—namely, the bacillus anthracis—the germ of 
malignant pustule and blood-poisoning; the bacillus 
mallei—the germ of glanders; the bacillus typhi- 



520 


VALIDITY OF THE NEW ETIOLOGY 


abdominalis—the germ of typhoid fever; the bacillus 
diphtheriae—the germ of diphtheria, and the bacillus 
tuberculosus—the germ of pulmonary consumption, 
and tubercular diseases in general. These germs 
were introduced in various ways; first, by application 
to denuded surfaces, as in vaccination; second, by 
ingestion, or swallowing germ-laden “cultures”; 
third, by injecting germ-laden “cultures” into the 
bowels; fourth, by subcutaneous injection, or hypo¬ 
dermic inoculation; fifth, by insufflation—drawing 
into the lungs a powder made from carefully dessic- 
ated sputum of a patient who was dving of consump¬ 
tion, and which was heavily laden with tubercle ba¬ 
cilli, there being an average of twenty-five germs 
visible within the field of the microscope. 

Experiments of this kind were made on six dif¬ 
ferent occasions, and with no other precaution than 
that of seeing that the body was practically free of 
such evidences of the presence of pathogen as the 
existence of congestion and catarrhal transudation. 
In every experiment, except the first, the germs were 
furnished and their introduction was supervised by 
reputable physicians. On the last three occasions the 
experiments were made in the presence of about 
twenty-five physicians, who declared upon due in¬ 
vestigation that not the slightest symptom of morbid 
action of any kind could be detected—that there was 
no change of temperature, no enlargement of the 
glands and no inflammatory action. 



PART THREE. 

THE NEW PROPHYLAXIS AND THERAPEITSIS. 

Comprehending a brief yet comprehensive outline 
of that which may be regarded as the long desired 
ideal in therapeutics—as the acme of rational medi¬ 
cine—and because it has reference, and in the high¬ 
est sense of the term, to the avoidance and removal 
of the various causes on which disease depends—* 
the newly-discovered predisponent as well as the 
long-known excitants, the infections and contagiums. 

That the measures herein described are of the emi¬ 
nently trustworthy order, is a proposition which will 
hardly be controverted after a careful examination 
shall have been made of the details, guiding prin¬ 
ciples and attending results. 







PART THREE. 

INTRODUCTION. 

THE NEW PROPHYLAXIS AND THERAPEUSIS. 

A succinct outline of the more important measures, 
preventive, remedial and administrative, which have 
been devised under the guidance of the discoveries 
described and illustrated in parts one and two of this 
work, comprehending what the writer has conceived 
to be the basic principles of Health and Disease, or 
of what he has ventured to designate as The New 
Vital Philosophy and The New Etiology and 
Pathology, will now be submitted and in the belief 
that it will be sufficient to enable any member of the 
medical profession to duplicate the results reported 
in the following chapter. 

In all the ages of medical history, the ablest and 
most conscientious members of the medical profes¬ 
sion have earnestly desired the time to come when 
their efforts in behalf of the sick could be conducted 
on strictly scientific lines—when they would be able 
to give paliatives a secondary place and address their 
efforts for the most part to the elimination of evi¬ 
dently existent, though unseen causative agents. 

When the existing system of medicine was pro¬ 
mulgated it was felt that the long hoped for change 
had been inaugurated. And, under the inspiration 
born of an abiding faith in the new doctrines and of 
the declaration made by the illustrious Professor 

523 


524 


INTRODUCTION, PART THREE 


Pasteur, of the French Academy, that, * ‘ It is within 
the power of man to rid himself of every parasitic 
disease,’’ the great body of the profession felt per¬ 
fectly confident that the keys to the problems of 
health and disease had been obtained and that a 
strictly scientific therapy was only a question of 
time. It so happened, however, that this conclusion 
was not borne out by the results attendant upon the 
practical application of the doctrines in question. 
For, instead of being rewarded with a reasonable 
measure of success, as we had confidently expected, 
we were confronted with very nearly as much con¬ 
fusion and disappointment as our predecessors of the 
former medical regime has experienced. 

By reason of these untoward experiences there has 
been a very noticeable modification in the tone of 
those who are in position to view the therapeutic 
situation in its true perspective. Reference is made 
to such authoritative declarations as those embraced 
in the following quotation: 

“effort to raise therapeutics to a true science." 

“Empiricism is today, despite the very real ad¬ 
vances made in our knowledge of the nature and 
cause of disease, almost the sole basis of therapeutics. 
If we except a few r drugs, not by any means all of the 
so-called specifics, we still give remedies because ex¬ 
perience has taught us that they are ‘good’ for cer¬ 
tain diseases or symptoms. In the case of some we 
have learned, or think we have learned, why they are 
curative, but it is in the case of very few only that 
we are able to explain the how as well as the why. 



525 


EMPIRICISM STILL PREVALENT 


Practitioners in general accept the teaching of ex¬ 
perience, or empiricism, and base their therapeutic 
endeavors upon that preferring to cure their patients 
even if they are unable to explain how they do so- 
but some refuse to be guided by faith—‘the substance 
of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen’; 
they regard it as unscientific to use a remedy the ac¬ 
tion of which they do not know or do not think they 
know; and forgetting that ‘all true science begins 
with empiricism,’ they remember only the conclu¬ 
sion of Huxley’s phrase that ‘all true science is such 
exactly in so far as it strives to pass out of the em¬ 
pirical stage.’ This is the foundation of therapeutic 
nihilism, and this conceit of the ultrascientific mind 
will no doubt continue, though perhaps in lessening 
degree, to exert its baleful influence upon medicine 
until the science of therapeutics shall have passed out 
of the empirical stage. That it is doing so now we 
have reason to hope * * -From the Medical 

Record, June 13,1908, by the courtesy of the publish¬ 
ers, Wm. Wood & Co., New York. 

In view of the fact that such observations as these 
are being made in the upper circles of the medical 
realm, it may well be supposed that the profession 
will gladly consider the details of the system of treat¬ 
ment that I have the honor to submit. For it will cer¬ 
tainly appeal to every fairminded member thereof as 
having a close resemblance, if nothing more, to what 
may justly be called scientific therapeutics. 




CHAPTER XLII. 

THE NEW PROPHYLAXIS AND THERAPEUSIS. 

Comprehending a succinct Description of the vari¬ 
ous Measures, Medicinal, Electrical, Mechanical, 
Manual, Chemical and Regiminal, which have 
proved to be Efficacious in the Elimination of 
Pathogen, the Underlying Cause of disease. 

In the preceding subdivision of this work the at¬ 
tempt was made, and not in vain, I trust, to establish 
the truth of the following propositions: 

1. That diseases in general owe their incipiency 
and most of their subsequent history, to the accumu¬ 
lation in the system of imperfectly elaborated or¬ 
ganic matter—pathogen. 

2. That this substance is essentially insoluble in 
the water of the blood, or in water of any quality, 
quantity or temperature. 

3. That during its sojourn within the body patho¬ 
gen assumes many forms, or varying degrees of con¬ 
sistency, from that of incipient catarrhal matter on 
up to that of such vile things as hyaline bodies, 
fibroid material, cancer cells and miliary tubercles. 

4. That by reason of its viscidity and coagula¬ 
bility this material interferes very seriously with the 
blood-flow and, hence, with the proper distribution 
of the life-giving fluid, the principal effects being, 
(1) a deficiency of blood in the peripheral and a cor¬ 
responding excess in the central vessels; (2) starva¬ 
tion and shrinkage of the external vessels and a 

526 


SUMMARY OF ACHIEVEMENTS 


527 


corresponding dilatation of the central vessels and 
structures—aneurism of the aorta, or hypertrophy, 
so-called, of the heart. 

5. That in many cases the offending material be¬ 
comes embedded in some one or more of the central 
organs—in the lungs, in consumption; in the kidneys, 
in Bright’s disease; in the liver in hepatic troubles; 
in the spleen, in splenic enlargement; in the spinal 
cord in locomotor ataxia; in the uterus, in uterine 
diseases and displacements, etc.—the result being a 
corresponding interferance with vital operations in 
general and with those of the affected part or parts 
in particular. 

6. That the rectification of the evils in question 
depends upon, (1), the liquefaction of the offending 
material—pathogen—in which condition it can be 
discharged through the natural outlets; (2), the re¬ 
storation of the distorted vessels, peripheral and cen¬ 
tral, to their normal calibre and working capacity; 
(3), the restoration of the digestive apparatus to the 
normal state; (4), the correction of the abuses on 
which the production of pathogen depends. 

Now, it is a matter of common observation that 
when the nature of any given difficulty becomes 
clearly apparent, the requirements thereof can, as a 
rule, be easily discerned and more or less readily 
supplied. But the problems above outlined proved 
to be decidedly exceptional and for two reasons in 
particular: First, the materials to be liquefied are 
so nearly insoluble that it was a difficult matter to 
find agents which would reduce them to the liquid 



528 


THE NEW PROPHYLAXIS AND THERAPEUSIS 


state and leave the tissues in which they are embedded 
uninjured; second, in chronic disease the material 
in question is embedded in vessels and organs which 
are centrally located, and is, therefore, as nearly in¬ 
accessible as it could well be. 

By reason of the essential hardness of these prob¬ 
lems or, else of my lack of capacity, it required 
nearly two decades of time and a great deal of ex¬ 
perimentation to devise a line of safe and depend¬ 
able liquefacients and the means for conveying them 
from the surface, where they must of necessity be 
applied, to the deep-seated areas, where the material 
to be liquefied is located. 

In such cases as those above referred to, compre¬ 
hending as they do the most intractable forms of 
disease, the gastric vessels and follicles are more or 
less engorged with plastic pathogen, a portion of 
which is constantly finding its way into the gastric 
cavity. In consequence of this transudation the 
inner walls of the stomach become so completely 
coated with slime, or plastic pathogen, that the 
stomata of the peptic glands are almost completely 
sealed up. For these reasons a considerable per¬ 
centage of the food commonly used by persons thus 
afflicted is only partially digested, the direct effects 
being: First, the addition of more pathogen to that 
already entrenched in the systemic recesses; second, 
a material shortage in the fund of duly elaborated 
material; third, a corresponding lack of energy, to¬ 
gether with most if not all the dangers that such a 
state of things naturally implies. The patient grows 



NEED OF GOOD JUDGMENT 


529 


weak, for the want not of food, but of the ability to 
digest his food—a situation the existence of which 
has for centuries escaped the discernment of both the 
victims thereof and the medical profession, and for 
the simple reason that little or no disturbance is pro¬ 
duced in the stomach, as already remarked. 

The rectification of these troubles, complicated, 
wide-spread and deep-seated as they are, is not an 
easy matter, but a most difficult task, since it calls 
for good judgment, close observation, much ingenu¬ 
ity) a great tenacity of purpose and a considerable 
amount of diplomacy. When the patient has been 
baffled for many years and has spent a great deal of 
time and money to no purpose, as is usually the case, 
it is not an easy matter to induce him to be as con¬ 
fiding, obedient and persistent as the correction of 
such a serious complication of troubles as he has 
fallen into necessarily demands. In short, in most 
cases of long standing disease, success depends not 
alone upon a definite knowledge of the work to be 
done and of the requisite remedies, but to a very 
large extent upon the tact, or diplomatic capabilities 
of the medical attendant. The securing of the 
requisite confidence depends to a considerable extent, 
of course, upon both the care exercised in the exami¬ 
nation of the patient, and the skill with which the 
results and the prognosis are presented or withheld, 
as the case may be. 

THE NEW PROPHYLAXIS. 

It may safely be assumed that the attentive reader 
of the foregoing chapters will be able to determine 




530 


THE NEW PROPHYLAXIS AND THERAPEUSIS 


for himself what course to pursue when he wishes to 
insure a continuation of normal conditions and also 
when he has occasion to immunize those who are sus¬ 
ceptible to “colds,” infections and contagiums. 

THE CRUX OF DIETETIC RESTRICTION. 

Those who are in the toils of the more serious 
forms of disease are the victims of what may be 
termed progressive starvation plus waste retention. 
For reasons already stated, they can neither properly 
digest enough food of any kind to sustain them, nor 
get rid of enough waste to escape auto-intoxication. 
Hence, the precautionary aphorism: Whenever the 
outlets are clogged, the inlet must be carefully 
guarded. 

Here is the crux of the dietetic problem, for it is 
almost as difficult to persuade the man who is being 
devoured, so to speak, by inveterate disease to aban¬ 
don the poison-laden and pathogen-generating meats 
on which his trouble chiefly depends, as it is to induce 
the inebriate to abandon the use of intoxicating 
liquors. The use of the foods in question is attended 
by a plumpness of figure, by no gastric disturbance, 
practically speaking, and a degree of stimulation 
which is mistaken for a sense of physical well-being. 
Nevertheless, he is slowly perishing from the effects 
malnutrition, auto-intoxication, and waste-poisoning, 
the first of these troubles being due to imperfect di¬ 
gestion and the presence of pathogen in the capilla¬ 
ries ; the second to the lodgement of pathogen in the 
various excretory organs, and the third to the pre- 



THE NEED OF REFORMATION 


531 


vailing custom of depending for nourishment upon 
the flesh of fishes, fowls and quadrupeds—foods 
which are quite heavily laden with those vile and 
highly toxic materials which are produced in the cells 
in the development of the vital energies, as shown in 
the chapter relating to the vitomotive-power—bile, 
urine, fecal matter and the various perspirable 
matters. 

For these reasons it may be said that there can be 
no restoration without reformation. In many cases, 
the requisite changes are attended by both a sense 
of depression and a loss of weight—a depression 
which is exactly proportionate to the stimulation 
under which the patient had been laboring, and a loss 
of weight which is in exact ratio to the work of elimi¬ 
nation. Not a particle of good material is lost, but 
it is hard to convince the average patient that such 
is the case. 

These unpleasant effects can be materially miti¬ 
gated by careful management, comprehending both 
a conservative use of the remedial agents and a grad¬ 
ual change of diet—a change from the foods for¬ 
merly used to the more appropriate which shall be so 
gradual as to consume from three to six weeks of 
time. 

Those foods which are most favorable in such cases 
are those which are easily digested, as shown by the 
shortness of the time required for the purpose, and 
which are essentially cooling—namely, broths, soups, 
gruels, juicy fruits and tender vegetables. These 
articles, together with a very small percentage of 



532 


THE NEW PROPHYLAXIS AND THERAPEUSIS 


the more substantial foods, so-called, are abundantly 
sufficient to sustain not only the bed-ridden, but those 
who are able to be “up and around,” to use a common 
expression. But to convince the man who is wedded 
to existing theories and the habits founded thereon 
that such is the case is, as a rule, a very difficult task. 
In short, the eradication of chronic diseases depends 
upon (1), the diplomatic and diagnostic capabilities 
of the attending physician; (2) the prohibition of 
those coarse articles, animal and vegetable, from 
which pathogen is produced; (3) the persistent em¬ 
ployment of measures which are capable of lique¬ 
fying the material on which the morbid process 
chiefly depends—pathogen; (4) the re-establishment 
of the eliminative functions, and (5) the restoration 
of the peripheral blood-vessels to their normal calibre 
and activity. 

Be it carefully noted in passing, that the dietetic 
restrictions need not, as a rule, be carried to a very 
great extreme. Patients who are in possession of a 
fair amount of vigor and digestive power, together 
with those are engaged in some active pursuit, need 
only be careful to avoid the coarser articles which are 
so productive of pathogen; to fight shy of the fats, 
oils and heavier pastries and to see that all food are 
thoroughly masticated and insalivated, the liquids as 
well as the solids. 

One of the foremost requirements in such cases as 
those under consideration is that of a frequent 
cleansing of the gastric cavity—the removal, by 



IMPORTANT LAVAGE APPARATUS 


533 


lavage or otherwise, of the thick slimy transudate 
with which its walls are coated. 

The accomplishment of this purpose is not by any 
means an easy matter; for the aforesaid transudate 
is so very thick and viscid, and so nearly insoluble in 
water of the temperature commonly used in lavage, 
that perfect success is almost impossible. For these 
reasons I have devised an apparatus which enables 
the therapeutist to introduce into the stomach (and 
without producing any pain) water which carries a 
temperature of 110 degrees Farenheit. Water of this 
temperature not only washes away the slime con¬ 
tained in the gastric cavity, but extracts from the 
gastric walls a considerable amount of the same kind 
of material—thus accomplishing two important pur¬ 
poses at one operation. 

This treatment comprehends the use of a two-way 
stomach tube and the means whereby the temper¬ 
ature of the water can be so gradually raised that 
pain is completely obviated. The hydrothermostat 
described further on subserves this purpose and 
quite as well as the purpose for which it was the 
more especially devised. 

THE NEW DIAGNOSIS. 

With the doctrine of pathogenosis well in mind, 
it is possible to arrive at a much more dependable 
diagnosis than we are able to make under the guid¬ 
ance of the existing theories. For. instead of limit¬ 
ing our efforts to the ascertainment of the exciting 
causes, we can determine with scarcely less than 





534 


THE NEW PROPHYLAXIS AND THERAPEUSIS 


marvelous accuracy both the underlying cause of the 
trouble and the points at which it is located. The 
only difficulty of importance lies in the unfortunate 
circumstance that the extent of the injury that path¬ 
ogen may have inflicted upon the internal organs 
cannot be very accurately determined. A great deal 
depends, of course, upon the grasp that the diagnos¬ 
tician has upon the nature of pathogen; of the vari¬ 
ous forms that it assumes during its sojourn within 
the living organism; of the density that it finally at¬ 
tains, and of the outward indications of its internal 
effects. In short, a correct diagnosis depends to a 
very great extent upon the physician’s ability to see 
things which are beyond the range of any microscope 
or other instrument of human invention. In the ab¬ 
sence of these endowments failure is apt to be the 
result. On the other hand, if he possess these quali¬ 
ties he may determine with reasonable if not abso¬ 
lute accuracy the particular form of pathogen that 
is to be removed—whether it was derived from glu¬ 
ten albumin, fibrous tissue, cellulose, or colloid. 
Moreover, such an one is able to form a fairly de¬ 
pendable idea of the extent to which the offending 
material has become denaturized. 

Obviously, the determination of these points is of 
vital importance. For, it will not do to handle such 
grave questions as these in a haphazard way. If the 
disease depend upon partially digested lignin, or 
cellulose, or fibroid tissue, it will not do to employ 
agents which are only capable of liquefying gluten 
or albumin, or colloid, and vice versa. To make a 



THE REQUISITE THERAPEUTIC AGENCIES 


535 


blunder in deciding such questions is but to lose much 
valuable time, if nothing more. 

THE NEW THERAPEUTICS. 

In view of the principles advanced in this and the 
preceding chapters of this work, it is evident that 
the rescue of those who are in the toils of chronic 
disease depends not only upon correct diagnosis, 
comprehending a definite knowledge of the nature 
and extent of the work to be accomplished, but upon 
an equally definite knowledge of some such agencies 
as the following: 

1. An agent or combination of such which is essen¬ 
tially capable of completely dissolving the particular 
form of pathogen that lies at the bottom of the mor¬ 
bid process and without injuring the vital structures 
—agents which may well be called pathogenolytes, 
as already remarked. 

2. Agencies which will enable the therapeutist to 
bring the chosen solvent into contact with the ma¬ 
terials to be liquefied and removed; in other words, 
the physician must employ agencies which will enable 
him to secure the liquefaction in situ of the partic¬ 
ular form of pathogen that lies at the bottom of the 
morbid processes with which he has to contend. 

Those agents from which the requite combinations, 
or special pathogenolytes may be compounded are, 
with perhaps a single exception, well-known in scien¬ 
tific circles, as will be seen by reference to the follow¬ 
ing list of items: 

1 Bromelin; ficusin; pancreatin, or its most impor- 



536 


THE NEW PROPHYLAXIS AND THERAPEUSIS 


tant constituent, trypsin; pepsin; thyreoid extract; 
glycerine; papain, papoid, caroid and sodium car¬ 
bonate. 

Myxoedema and Cretinism call for the liquefaction 
of gelatinous and mucoid material and this in turn 
for an attenuated solution in aqua pura of thyreoid 
extract and glycerine, carefully administered and 
applied. 

Troubles depending entirely upon recently formed, 
or what may be called plastic pathogen (hemial- 
bumose) call for the alternating-temperature lavage 
(described further on) the exhibition of the ordinary 
proteolytes—pepsin and pancreatin. 

Diseases dependent upon partially liquefied and 
subsequently dehydrated cellulose, lignin, fibrous 
material and denaturized gluten and albumin, call 
for suitable and judiciously employed combinations 
of bromelin, fiscusin pancreatin, and sodium carbo¬ 
nate. 

The various agents here referred to are to be used 
in the form of very dilute, or highly attenuated 
aqueous solutions, and introduced as hereinafter 
explained. 

PATHOGENOLYTIC FORMULAE. 

Morbid processes of long standing differ so greatly 
in their nature, extent and requirements that it is 
not an easy matter to lay out a course of treatment 
which can justly be regarded as anything more than 
a rough therapeutic suggestion. It is a very for¬ 
tunate circumstance, therefore, that the remedies re- 



DIFFICULTIES TO BE OVERCOME 


537 


quired for the removal of the underlying cause of 
disease are practically harmless. For, in the event 
of a mistake in prescribing, there is but little risk 
beyond that of a loss of time. 

It goes without saying, however, that every effort 
should be made to avoid mistakes. For there are 
many cases in which danger is more real than ap¬ 
parent. In such cases a loss of time may mean a 
loss of life. Heart disease, apoplexy and Bright’s 
disease may be cited as leading examples of the kind 
to which reference is made. For they are exceed¬ 
ingly treacherous, so to speak. 

Believing, as I do, that a hint to the wise is suffi¬ 
cient, I shall merely indicate the reasons for using 
attenuated solutions and then submit the three for¬ 
mulae that I have found to be sufficient and the 
rules to be observed in reducing them to the proper 
consistency. 

The reasons for using attenuated solutions reside 
in two facts: First, that in chronic diseases the gas¬ 
tric apparatus and alimentary tract are so seriously 
involved in catarrhal conditions that the requisite 
remedies must of necessity be introduced through the 
pores of the skin; second, that the skin is so nearly 
impervious that the introduction of the most dilute 
solutions calls for what may be termed compulsory 
measures. 

The solutions above referred to mav be made as 
follows, and diluted before being used by the addi¬ 
tion of one, two or three parts of water, as the case 



538 


THE NEW PROPHYLAXIS AND THERAPEUSIS 


to be treated may in the judgment of the physician 

seem to require: 

• 


FORMULA NUMBER 

ONE. 

E 

Ficusin . 

.... 4 grammes 


Papain. 

.... 2 


Pancreatin . 

.... 4 “ 


Sodium Carbonate . 

.... 2 decigrammes 


Glycerinum C. P. 

....250 c. c. 


Aqua Distil. 

.... 1 liter. 


Fiat Sol. 



FORMULA NUMBER TWO. 

E 

Ficusin . 

.... 4 grammes 


Bromelin. 

.... 3 


Trypsin. 

.... 2 


Sodium Carbonate . 

—. 2 decigrammes 


Glycerinum C. P. 

....250 c. c. 

“*■ r 

Aqua Distil. 

.... 1 liter. 


Fiat Sol. 



FORMULA NUMBER THREE. 

E 

Caroid . 

.... 4 grammes 


Trvpsin. 

.... 2 “ 


Sodium Carbonate . 

—. 2 decigrammes 


Glycerinum C. P. 

....250 c. c. 


Aqua Distil. 

.... 1 liter. 


Fiat Sol. 


These remedies introduced as hereinafter directed, 
together with appropriate dietetic restrictions, due 
attention to the various emunctories, and a moderate 
use of palliatives have accomplished the supposedly 
impossible, as a vast number of such facts as those 
set forth in the last chapter of this work go to show. 

These solutions must be freshly made and diluted 




















HARMLESSNESS OF REMEDIES 


530 


on using as indicated in a preceding paragraph. 
They are to be applied to that part of the surface of 
the body which is closely related either to the prin¬ 
cipal lesion or to the point of obstruction, which is 
in the great majority of cases the epigastrium, as the 
duly attentive reader of the foregoing and the fol¬ 
lowing parts of this work will readily perceive. 

These solutions owe their value as a means of 
eradicating deepseated disorders to the following 
facts and qualities: First, they are absolutely innoc¬ 
uous, and, hence, are kindly received by the most 
delicate organisms; second, they are perfectly dif¬ 
fusible, when properly diluted, and, hence, are dis¬ 
tributed from the point of entrance, or application, 
to all parts of the body; third, they act in either 
neutral or alkaline media; fourth, they are prote- 
olytes of the highest order, and, hence, are capable 
of liquefying all forms of pathogen, save such as have 
become too greatly denaturized and too voluminous 
to permit of such a change, fibroid and cancerous 
growths, for example. These may be prevented, and 
mitigated by the aid of the foregoing discoveries. 

Crude and simple as the remedial measures and 
mode of management now briefly outlined may seem, 
their use is attended by results which are vastly su¬ 
perior to those produced by any other that can be 
named, as a reference to the facts set forth in the 
following chapter will show. 

Sodium Carbonate owes its value as a remedial 
agent or adjunct to the possession of several impor- * 
tant qualifications: (1), it is the agent on which the 



540 


THE NEW PROPHYLAXIS AND THERAPEUSIS 


alkalinity of the blood depends, and is therefore the 
proper corrective in acidaemia; (2), it is practically 
harmless when judiciously employed; (3), in combi¬ 
nation with bromelin and ficusin it may be said to 
play the part of a powerful synergist; (4), it has 
been established by adequate experimentation that 
it is capable of increasing the fluidity of the bile and 
diminishing the percentage of the solids contained 
therein, which changes greatly facilitate the work of 
hepatic elimination; (5), while the use of sodium 
carbonate changes the urine from an acid to an alka¬ 
line reaction, there is no distinguishable change in its 
general constituents—a fact which justifies the pre¬ 
sumption that it neutralizes the acid of the urine 
without producing any untoward effect. 

It is an easy matter to see that sodium carbonate 
is the ideal corrective of the uric acid diathesis. And, 
according to authorities it was at one time used for 
this purpose, but without benefit. The reason for 
this unexpected outcome has not been stated by any 
authority, I believe, and hence I venture the hypo¬ 
thesis that it was employed as an internal medica¬ 
ment and that it was neutralized by the hydrochloric 
acid of the the gastric secretion—a reduction which 
is practically if not entirely obviated when this 
agent is introduced directly into the system as here¬ 
inafter described. 

While it is true that sodium carbonate is a per¬ 
fectly safe remedy when properly used, it is equally 
true that the excessive use of it is attended by bad 



THERAPEUTIC ESSENTIALS AND RESULTS 


541 


or very bad results, according to the extent of its 
misuse. 

In short, Bromelin, Ficusin, Pancreatin and 
Sodium Carbonate in the shape of an attenuated 
aqueous solution and employed as hereinafter ex¬ 
plained is the ideal remedy for the removal of con¬ 
centrated and deeply-seated pathogen. 

It must be admitted, however, that the action of 
this compound is not sufficiently comprehensive or 
powerful to meet the requirements of the most ad¬ 
vanced stages of denaturization—that is to say, when 
pathogen has assumed that compactness that it ex¬ 
hibits in such cases as fully developed sarcoma, carci¬ 
noma and fibrosis, the liquefaction thereof in situ is 
scarcely if at all possible. 

I have found that it is-capable of breaking up in¬ 
cipient epithelioma or developing cancer of the 
integument; that a timely use thereof is capable of 
curing the great majority of cases of such grave 
diseases as diabetes mellitus; interstitial nephritis, 
commonly called Bright’s disease; sexual impotency; 
phthisis pulmonalis; bronchitis; cardiac dilatation; 
valvular insufficiency; chronic chorea; gastritis; 
apoplectic conditions; a large percentage of cases of 
paralysis, and a goodly percentage of cases of fairly 
well-developed cataract, atrophy of the optic nerves, 
opacity of the vitreous humor, and tabes dorsalis, 
commonly called locomotor ataxia. 

DYNAMIC MEDICATION. 

The means that I have devised for the purpose of 
bringing the foregoing remedies into contact with the 





542 


THE NEW PROPHYLAXIS AND THERAPEUSIS 


pathogen that is embedded in deep-seated areas, may 
well be designated by some such term as dynamic 
medication. For it comprehends both the enforced 
opening of the pores of the skin and the compulsory 
passage of the remedies from the surface of the body, 
where they must of necessity be applied, through the 
pores of the skin and the subcutaneous tissues and 
into the remotely situated areas, where the material 
to be liquefied is located. 

The transmission of remedial agents from the sur¬ 
face of the body to the pathogen-laden areas in ques¬ 
tion can be effected, as many years of unparalleled 
success go to show, by the combined action of two 
agents, the one being & relaxant and the other the 
galvanic current—the former opening the pores, thus 
favoring the work, while the latter carries the reme¬ 
dies to their destination by virtue of its rapid flow 
and of its mighty cataphoric, or electro-osmotic 
power. 

It will be remembered that the skin is so nearly 
impervious that local anaesthesia cannot be effected 
without the aid of the hypodermic syringe or of the 
electric current. It will also be remembered that the 
latter method has been utilized to some extent since 
the days of the brilliant but erratic Buchanan. 

In a word, it has long been known that the galvanic 
current flows at the enormous rate of 288,000 
miles per second, and that in its passage through the 
body it carries by means of its mighty cataphoric 
power any duly attenuated solution that may be 
placed in its pathway. 



NEW THERAPEUTIC APPARATUS 


643 


In consequence of a knowledge of cataphoresis and 
of tlie relaxing effect produced by warm applications, 
I succeeded several years ago in devising the appa¬ 
ratus illustrated in part in Fig. 30, and more fully in 
Fig. 31—a half-tone picture of a treatment room. 

The combination represented in Fig. 30 consists in: 

First, an upholstered chair of the ordinary surgi¬ 
cal pattern, or in lieu thereof, any other suitable 
piece of furniture. 

Second, a pair of hydrothermic coils made of rub¬ 
ber tubing and carrying water of the proper tem¬ 
perature to produce relaxation of the pores, which 
facilitates the passage of the remedies. 

Third, a pair of electrodes interwoven with or at¬ 
tached to the aforesaid coils, and connected by means 
of insulated copper wires with a twenty-cell Le- 
clanche galvanic battery. 

Fourth, a pair of pads composed of six thicknesses 
of ordinary linen crash, circular in shape and about 
nine inches in diameter. These pads are for the pur¬ 
pose of applying the above named remedies to the 
surface of the body. 

Fifth, an encased electric wall-plate (of the kind 
in common use in medical offices and institutions) 
with its polarity-changer, rheostat and milliampere- 
meter. 

Sixth, a hydrothermostat, comprising a three-way 
water-cock a two-way water-cock and a thermometer. 
The purpose of this apparatus is the regulation of the 
temperature of the water flowing through the above 



Fig. 3a 


\ THE CATAPHORIC APPARATUS. \ 

Showing patient in treatment, with a pair of the 
hydrothermic coils and their electrodes in use, one 
applied to the kidneys and the other to the stomach. 
The flow of the electric current is shown by the ar¬ 
row points depicted between the electrodes. We are 
able to prove, experimentally, that a given remedy 
can thus be driven clear through the body. 


544 


















v 




m : mmm 




i * 




31—CATAPHORIC, OR ELECTRO-DYNAMIC MEDICATION. 
























































THE NEW TREATMENT DESCRIBED 


545 


described coils of tubing, which is done by so manipu¬ 
lating the handle thereof as to allow a proper amount 
of hot and cold water to flow through the coils to 
produce relaxation of the pores. 

When in use one of the coils with its electrodes 
attached to the battery as above described is placed 
apon the chair and overlaid with one of the linen 
pads, previously saturated with the remedy to be 
introduced. The patient places his body over this 
coil and pad. The other coil with its electrode and 
medicated pad is placed over the stomach, all of which 
will become clearly apparent in consequence of a 
careful examination of Figs. 30 and 31. 

In practice, an ordinary bath-blanket is folded 
xengthwise and placed across the chair or couch on 
which the treatment is to be administered. A small 
sheet is folded into a narrow strip and placed upon 
the blanket. One of the aforesaid hvdrothermic 
coils is placed upon the sheet, and overlaid with a 
medicated pad. After removing the clothing from 
the parts to be treated, the patient places his body 
across the pad just referred to. The other medicated 
pad is then applied to the opposite part of the body, 
or as nearly so as possible. 

Other parts of the body are treated in a similar 
manner. Twenty to forty milliamperemeters is a 
sufficiently powerful range of current, as I verily 
believe. 

The treatment lasts from ten to twenty minutes. 
At the expiration of the first half of the allotted time 
the polarity of the current is changed. As a rule this 



546 


THE NEW PROPHYLAXIS AND THERAPEUSIS 


treatment is carried out every week day. And, in 
order to facilitate the distribution of the remedy to 
all parts of the body, and for the additional purpose 
of restoring the pores and peripheral vessels to their 
normal calibre and activity, the patient is skilfully 
and thoroughly massaged every other day. 

Any person who is at all familiar with the reaction 
that takes place between fats and alkalies will readily 
perceive that the diet of patients undergoing this 
treatment must be practically free from oleaginous 
materials. 

It is needless to say that due attention must be 
given to any exciting cause, infectious, contagious 
or miasmatic, that may be at work in any given case. 
In short, we must employ not only such remedies as 
will be calculated to relieve the distress, but such 
additional measures as are capable of removing the 
various causes, immediate and remote, infectious and 
non-infectious, on which the trouble depends, to do 
which is but to earn the plaudit of scientific 
medication. 

In short, it has been found that the cure of the 
hitherto incurable can be effected by calling to our 
assistance that matchless form of energy which an¬ 
nihilates both time and space in the celerity with 
which it executes the will of man—traveling in so 
doing at the rate of 288,000 of miles per second, 
and carrying with it any dialyzable solution that may 
be in its pathway—namely, galvanic electricity. 
In other words, the greatest of all the potentialities 
that Nature has entrusted to human hands has made 



A NEW THERAPEUTIC APPARATUS 


547 


possible the hitherto impossible, by lending its Cata¬ 
lytic and Cataphoric, or electro-osmotic, powers to 
that of the above named pathogenolytic compounds. 

By reason of the successes referred to in the ap¬ 
pended Reports of Cases I am of the opinion that 
the system of treatment now outlined will prove 
successful in the vast majority of the supposedly 
incurable diseases, especially Epilepsy. I am also 
of the opinion that a good percentage of those from 
whom cancer has been removed by the surgical 
method can be restored to such a state of health that 
the disease will not return. 

Fig. 32 represents an apparatus that I devised for 
the purpose of meeting the requirements of that pe¬ 
culiar and extremely perplexing integumentary con¬ 
dition which is termed hvperaesthesia and also the 
diametrically opposite and more frequent condition 
called anaesthesia, or sensory paralysis. 

This apparatus is what may be termed a bivalvu- 
lar bath tub, so arranged that the bath, plain or 
medicated, may be maintained at any given tempera¬ 
ture and for any length of time. The upper and 
lower segments are hinged together on one side and 
fastened together on the other by means of the clasps 
shown in the engraving. Between the upper and 
nether segments is a rubber gasket, which renders the 
joint water tight. The patient’s body and limbs 
rest on air cushions, which fact is indicated by dotted 
lines in ovoid contour. Near the point at which the 
gluteus maximus muscles rest the apparatus is at¬ 
tached by means of hinges to supports, and which 



Fig. 32. 


THE AESTH ESI ATONE APPARATUS. 

A continuous medicated bath of any given tempera¬ 
ture, for the treatment of peripheral nervous diseases 
—anaesthesia or deficiency of sensibility of the skin, 
and hvperaesthesia, or a supersensitive condition 
thereof, both symptomatic of kidney disease, as a 
rule. 

This apparatus embraces a bivalvular bath cham¬ 
ber, a rotary pump for keeping the bath solution in 
circulation, an electric motor to operate the pump, a 
heater with thermometer—the means whereby the 
bath may be kept at any given degree of temperature 
for any given length of time. 

548 










MARVELOUS SUCCESS 


549 


have as their object the shifting of the patient’s posi¬ 
tion, thus relieving the uneasiness incident to such 
long-continued treatment as hyperaesthesia calls for. 
Underneath the apparatus is a coil of copper tubing 
duly encased; a gas burner for heating the water or 
solution to be used, and a thermometer for regulating 
the temperature. In close proximity to this is a 
rotary pump and the electric motor by which the 
pump is operated. The heating coil, pump and ap¬ 
paratus are connected together by means of rubber 
tubing as shown in the engraving—a provision which 
permits the apparatus to be tilted as indicated by 
the dotted outline of the bath and patient. Provision 
is also made for fixing the apparatus in any desired 
position as will be seen by reference to the jointed 
prop and clasp-handle on the left of the figure. 

These are only a few of the many instruments that 
I have designed for the relief of the afflicted, and 
under the guidance of the principles advanced in the 
foregoing chapters of this work. 

The various measures and appliances to which I 
refer, together with a properly regulated dietary, 
comprehending the gradual disuse of foods which 
are essentially heating, and the gradual adoption of 
those which are both cooling in their nature and 
essentially easy to digest, as shown by the shortness 
of time required for the purpose, have in the ten 
years during which they have been in process of 
verification worked wonders. 

The correctness of this proposition will hardly be 
doubted after a careful examination shall have been 



550 


THE NEW PROPHYLAXIS AND THERAPEUSIS 


made of the facts set forth in the following chapter. 
For it will be seen that the cases there described not 
only belonged in the category of the hitherto incur¬ 
able, but were almost without exception in extremis . 

As a rule, patients undergoing the treatment herein 
advised lose weight for a while and to the exact ex¬ 
tent of the good accomplished. This loss, together 
with the attending languor, are to be regarded as 
prophetic of success; for they are due to the expul¬ 
sion of morbid material—pathogen and such of the 
ordinary waste products as had been retained in con¬ 
sequence of obstruction of the emunctories. Not a 
particle of good material is lost. 

After the circulation has thus been cleared of inter¬ 
fering materials, nutrition, or replenishment of the 
cells, muscular and nervous, takes place, the patient 
making a gradual and legitimate gain in weight, 
strength and vivacity until recovery is complete, or 
as nearly so as may be possible. Those who begin 
treatment before they have become seriously encum¬ 
bered with pathogen and waste matters, experience 
but little if any loss of weight and no sense of depres¬ 
sion, and for the reason that nutrition keeps pace 
with the work of elimination. 

It is well-knowm to duly observing physicians that 
many patients who consume large quantities of 
“nourishing foods’’—the proteids—first gain in 
weight, feeling and appearance, and then go down 
quickly with pneumonia, influenza, or some other 
so-called inter-current disorder—a mystery which 
finds explanation in the proposition, that the gain in 



A SPLENDID TESTIMONIAL 


551 


weight was due to accumulation of partially elabor¬ 
ated material—pathogen—and that the gain in feel¬ 
ing and appearance are symptoms of the attending 
stimulation—of the vital effort to withstand the im¬ 
position. 

Nearly ten years have elapsed since I devised the 
remedies and appliances to which I have referred. 
Nor has anything occurred in all these years which 
can justly be regarded as a reflection upon the utility 
of such a system of treatment. 

That the treatment now described is capable of 
working wonders in behalf of the sick, including the 
cure of many supposedly incurable disorders, is a 
proposition which will hardly be controverted after 
a careful examination shall have been made of the 
examples set forth in the following chapter. While' 
it may seem at first glance to be incredible that reme¬ 
dies can be sent into and through the body by means 
of the galvanic current, it is an actual and well- 
established fact that this has been done on many 
occasions and not only by the writer, but by many 
other physicians, as well. 

It will be remembered that not long ago consider¬ 
able notice was taken in the journals of this country 
of the reports made by several French physicians 
regarding what was termed “electric medication. 9 ’ 

The “Literary Digest” (published by Funk.and 
Wagnalls, New York) took note of the matter and 
quoted from La Nature, Paris, France, an illustrated 
article, showing that marvelous results had been ob- 



552 


THE NEW PROPHYLAXIS AND THERAPEUSIS 


tained, one of which was referred to in the following 
terms: # 

“One of the most striking results of electrolytic 
treatment is its resolutive action on scar formations, 
by the use of cathodes formed of a solution of sodium 
chlorid. Leduc cites the case of a young soldier 
whose hand was rendered useless by a burn. He had 
been treated without success in a military hospital 
and discharged as permanently deformed. He was 
given the electrolytic treatment, his hand being 
placed in a bath of sodium chlorid serving as cathode; 
after two sittings of thirty minutes each he was com¬ 
pletely cured. * * * ” 

After referring to the fact that remedies can be 
passed into the body by galvanic electricity the 
French experimenters (Drs. Desfosses and Marti¬ 
net) remarked that: 

“This simple fact may be the germ of a therapeutic 
revolution. Up to a recent epoch the introduction of 
a medicament by the electric current was considered 
to be a fact of little or no value; now we know it to be 
easy and regular, susceptible of determining, at will 
local action on the skin and general toxic or therapeu¬ 
tic action throughout the organism, according to the 
electrolytic solution used, its intensity, and the length 
of time during which it is applied.”— By permission 
of Funk & Wagnails, publishers, New York, N. Y. 



CHAPTER XLIII. 

PRACTICAL VERIFICATION—REPORTS OF CASES. 

Attention is now called to a few out of the multi¬ 
tude of remarkable results that I have obtained in 
the ten years that the pathogenolytic system of 
treatment, if I may so term it, has been in process 
of development and verification. 

The first one of the proposed examples will be 
described more in detail than the rest, and as an 
example of the time required and progress usually 
made in the very serious cases of the kind. 

Case 1: J. W. M., banker; age 52; very corpulent, 
weight 250 pounds. Diabetes Mellitus, 11 years 
standing. Began treatment February 28th. Specific 
gravity of urine 1034; had to urinate ten to twelve 
times during the night; thirst very great. 

March 8: The flow of urine had been reduced 
fully 60 per cent.; desire to drink water had almost 
entirely vanished. 

May 14: Weight 223 pounds. 

May 17: Specific gravity 1022; sugar, a mere 
trace; weight 222 pounds. 

May 18: Analysis of urine showed no sugar; 
specific gravity 1020, which is normal. 

June 7: Specific gravity 1020, no sugar; weight 
220 pounds, feeling well. 

July 12: Weight 211 pounds; specific gravity 
1020, no sugar, feeling well. 

553 


554 


PRACTICAL VERIFICATION 


August 14: Weight 205 pounds; no sugar; spe¬ 
cific gravity 1018. 

November 1: Weight 200 pounds; no sugar; no 
corpulence; skin, liver and bowels in good condition. 
Discharged cured. 

Case 2: H. K. D., commercial tuorist; age 52. 
Chronic Dyspepsia of extreme character, com¬ 
plicated with severe constipation, torpid liver, nerv¬ 
ousness, sexual impotence, strong symptoms of im¬ 
pending apoplexy, the least jolt producing severe 
headache. 

Three months treatment removed every symptom 
of disease, the impotence not excepted. 

Case 3: J. S. B., printer; age 35. Pulmonary 
Consumption of nine years standing; hemorrhage 
having occurred at short intervals; expectorated at 
beginning of treatment one pint per day of heavy 
tuberculous material. At the end of sixty days of 
treatment the expectoration had practically ceased, 
and without any attempt having been made to sup¬ 
press it, save the use of measures which were calcu¬ 
lated to remove the conditions upon which the forma¬ 
tion of that progenitor of sputum, pathogen, de¬ 
pended—namely, the material that blocks the gastric 
capillaries and the resulting gastritis, catarrh and 
necrosis, gastric and pharyngeal. 

Treatment was concluded at the end of three 
months, the various symptoms having disappeared 
and the strength having been restored, so that the pa¬ 
tient could resume work at his trade, typesetting. 



REPORTS OF CASES 


555 


Case 4: Mrs. J. S. B., age 32. Diabetes of four 
years standing and with the usual symptoms and 
complications. Treatment lasted less than five 
months, at which time the cure was complete. At 
last accounts, a year later, health still perfect. 

Case 5: Mrs. E. M. S., age 63. Had been eight 
years in bed in consequence of General Debility and 
had at beginning of treatment perforating ulcer 
located in the fungus of the womb; heart action ex¬ 
tremely weak and irregular, forbidding the use of 
anaesthetics. Operation being absolutely necessary, 
preparatory treatment was instituted at once and 
persisted in for six months, at the end of which time 
the heart action was practically perfect. The uterus 
and adnexa were then removed per vaginum; recov¬ 
ery was steady and uneventful; left hospital at the 
end of six weeks and resumed her domestic duties 
after an intermission of eight years. Has enjoyed 
good health during the six years that have since 
transpired. 

Case 6: D. W., Christian minister; age 64. 
Bright’s Disease and Diabetes combined, complicated 
with enlarged prostate gland, cystitis and extremely 
difficult and sometimes impossible micturition, due 
to the prostatic enlargement. Treatment lasted one 
year at which time cure was complete, the urethra 
having opened up without the use of the sound or 
any other instrument. When last heard from, which 
was three years after the close of treatment, the 
health was still good. 

Case 7: Mrs. K. C., widow; age 68. General De- 



556 


PRACTICAL VERIFICATION 


bility, being scarcely able to walk. A fairly well 
developed epithelioma on the left side of the face in 
close proximity of the nose, diameter about three- 
fourths of an inch. Treatment was confined to the 
above named measures, the cancerous growth receiv¬ 
ing no local treatment. The treatment lasted one 
year, at which time the health was good and the can¬ 
cer gone. 

Case 8: J. M. C., Pharyngeal Tuberculosis, 
Chronic Gastritis and facial ephithelioma. Treat¬ 
ment four months, and with the same results as the 
preceding case. 

Case 9: J. S., age 30. Renal Calculus; renal colic 
having occurred at intervals of about two months 
for two years, terminating, as a rule, in uremia and 
uremic convulsions. Two and one-half months treat¬ 
ment resulted in a complete cure. 

Case 10: Clyde L., age 13. Hepatic Abscess of 
five years standing. Liver greatly enlarged; ema¬ 
ciated and melanotic; abscess was located on upper 
surface of the liver and had found vent through the 
diaphragm and lung; matter discharging through 
this organ was exceedingly offensive, and at times 
enormous in quantity. Treatment lasted less than 
six months at which time the patient was discharged 
cured. 

Case 11: W. H. E., train dispatcher; age 38. 
Pulmonary Consumption of several years standing. 
Both lungs crepitant throughout; thin, feeble; hectic 
flush very prominent; apparently nearing the second 
stage of the disease. At the end of ninety days’ treat- 



REPORTS OF CASES 


557 


ment the lungs were clear and the patient able to 
resume work. 

Heard from three years later, at which time he 
was still free from pulmonary trouble. 

Case 12: Miss H. L. Pulmonary Consumption 
with the usual complications—a close parallel to the 
foregoing—(case 11). The duration of treatment 
and the outcome were practically the same. 

Case 13: Mrs. M. F. W. Widow, age 30. Chronic 
enlargement of the ovaries. Several surgeons had 
expressed the opinion that an operation was abso¬ 
lutely necessary. Seven months’ treatment removed 
every symptom. More than five years have since 
elapsed, during which her health has been good, no 
symptom of ovarian disease having appeared. 

Case 14: Mrs. F. L. K., age 58. Dyspepsia of 
twenty years standing, complicated with severe con¬ 
stipation and attended with frequent spells of cere¬ 
bral hyperaemia, causing grave fears of an apoplec¬ 
tic seizure; had moved from one state to another five 
times in search of health, and to no purpose. 

Discharged cured at the end of the sixth month of 
treatment. 

Case 15: J. E. B., mining president; age 42. Dia¬ 
betes of six years standing; with the usual compli¬ 
cations ; thin and weak; had been pronounced beyond 
the pale of remedial endeavor by several reputable 
physicians. At the end of twelve months treatment 
the patient was discharged cured, being in fine flesh 
and color. 



558 


PRACTICAL VERIFICATION 


Case 16: H. D., surgeon; age 48. Diabetes com¬ 
plicated with albuminuria; treatment lasted ten 
months, at which time the patient was the picture of 
health and able to pose as an excellent example of 
physical manhood. 

Case 17: J. C., lumber dealer; age 71. Diabetes 
of eight years standing; specific gravity 1038; sugar 
12 per cent. Discharged at the end of three months 
completely cured. When last heard from which was 
two years after close of treatment he was still free 
from diabetes and in fine shape. 

Case 18: Selma W., age 10. Chorea and Pro¬ 
gressive Paralysis. Treatment began six months 
after paralysis occurred. One side of the body, the 
neck and the vocal chords were completely paralyzed. 
The neck was “as limber as a shoestring.’’ Loss of 
voice complete. At the end of three months treat¬ 
ment there was no symptom of chorea, paralysis or 
aphonia, while strength was almost normal. Four 
years have since elapsed and she is still in perfect 
health. 

Case 19: Mrs. H., widow; age 67. Diabetes Melli- 
tus of many years standing; sugar 8 per cent; had 
been in bed most of the time for several months. At 
the end of eight months, the patient was discharged 
cured. When last heard from, two years after, there 
was no symptom of diabetes. 

Case 20: D. B. T., age 81. Paraplegia of six 
months standing, prostrate in bed and very nervous. 
At the end of four months treatment the patient was 



REPORTS OF CASES 


559 


free from paralysis and able to walk as well as almost 
any one of his age. 

Case 21: F. T., age 34. Telegrapher. Diabetes 
Mellitus of seven years duration; vision had been 
obscured to such an extent that he could not recog¬ 
nize his friends; was much emaciated; skin very sal¬ 
low. Treatment lasted seven months, at which time 
every symptom of the disease had disappeared, the 
eyesight normal, the weight nearly the same as it 
was before the disease occurred, while the face 
glowed with pink of health. 

Case 22: T. S. H., age 44. Paralysis of lower ex¬ 
tremities of eight years standing; could walk by the 
aid of two canes. At the end of six months treatment 
was able to resume his occupation of canvasser with¬ 
out the help of canes or crutches, and after the lapse 
of four years is still at work, as a letter recently re¬ 
ceived from him goes to show. 

Case 23 : Hattie L., age 16. Pulmonary Phthisis, 
very marked but not very advanced; both lungs 
crepitant throughout; skin very sallow and scaly. 
Four months treatment resulted in a complete cure; 
five years have since transpired without a return of 
the disease. 

Case 24: Mrs. F. D. T. Bright’s disease of fif¬ 
teen years standing. Had been operated upon for 
renal calculus two years prior to her application for 
treatment. When treatment began there was a large 
abscess in the kidney from which the stone had been 
removed, which was discharging an enormous 



560 


PRACTICAL VERIFICATION 


amount of pus by way of the ureters and urethra; 
uniary examination showed 20 per cent of pus and 
albumen, about an equal quantity of each. At the 
end of three months treatment the urine was free 
from both pus and albumen, and the patient asserted 
that she was free from pain for the first time in fif¬ 
teen years. After a lapse of three years word has 
been received to the effect that she is still well. 

Case 25: Mrs. F. J. H., age 33. Diabetes Millitus, 
complicated with catarrhal and dyspeptic troubles; 
sugar 3 per cent. Treatment lasted three months; 
cure complete. More than two years have passed 
and the health is still perfect. 

Case 26: H. B. S., proprietor of steam laundry. 
Age 30. Pulmonary Consumption complicated with 
pharyngeal tuberculosis, the sequel of a severe case 
of pneumonia, which occurred nearly three years be¬ 
fore he applied for treatment; greatly emaciated but 
able to walk a short distance at a time; hectic flush on 
the cheeks; skin very sallow; very hard dry cough; 
had been advised by an eminent specialist to try the 
climate of Arizona, as a last resort. Was subse¬ 
quently advised by a friend to come to the writer for 
treatment. There seemed to be but little hope of a 
successful outcome, and yet at the end of the sixth 
month of treatment, nearly every symptom of the 
disease had disappeared, and hence he returned 
home. After a lapse of eighteen months he is in good 
condition. 

Case 27: J. G. W., age 59. Bright’s disease of 
long standing; specific gravity 1010. Albumen 6 per 




REPORTS OF CASES 


661 


cent.; vision obscured in consequence of albuminous 
transudate; unable to recognize any one, weak and 
emaciated; urine loaded with casts and other sedi¬ 
mentary materials. At the end of three months 
treatment the albumen and casts had disappeared 
from the urine and the vision had been cleared up so 
that he could see the lines on letter paper. 

Case 28: Mrs. M. C. O., age 38. Bright’s disease, 
complicated with indigestion, constipation and leu- 
corrhea; edema prevailed in the lower extremities 
and beneath the eyes. Discharged cured at the end 
of eight months treatment; is still well after the ex¬ 
piration of two years. 

Case 29: Mrs. S. L. S., age 48. Heart Disease, 
complicated with dyspeptic, bowel and renal trou¬ 
bles ; feeble and emaciated, nervous and despondent, 
almost to the point of desperation. Treatment began 
February 17th, and ended May 17th, having lasted 
three months, at which time she was able to resume 
her domestic duties. Two years have since elapsed 
and her health is still good. 

Case 30: Mrs. M. B., age 60. Urethritis of six 
years standing, complicated with endometritis and 
attended at times with vesical hemorrhage. Her 
troubles had completely baffled the ordinary methods. 
Treatment began March 28, and ended May 20th, not 
quite three months, at which time the cure was 
complete. 

Case 31: J. R. C., merchant; age 38. Pulmonary 
Phthisis; family history very bad; his paternal and 



562 


PRACTICAL VERIFICATION 


maternal ancestors of three generations having per¬ 
ished with tubercular disease; had submitted to two 
surgical operations; one two years before for tuber¬ 
cular abscess located in the posterior lobe of the 
right lung, comprehending the removal of five inches 
of the fifth rib, and one later on for tuberculosis of 
the elbow joint, comprehending amputation of the 
limb above the joint. This had not healed when the 
right lung became completely hepatized and filled 
with tuberculous transudate. This together with 
emaciation, debility and hectic flush, was the situation 
at the beginning of treatment. Four months treat¬ 
ment removed every appearance of the disease and 
left him in fine flesh and color, so complete was the 
change that he expressed the belief that he would 
never die of consumption. 

Case 32: Mrs. P. B. C., widow; age 28. Phthisis 
Pulmonalis, attributed to the fact that she had cared 
for her late husband through a long confinement with 
pulmonary tuberculosis; was greatly emaciated; so 
weak that she “wobbled’’ as she walked, to use her 
own words; cheeks hectic, skin sallow; and both 
lungs crepitant throughout. Three months treat¬ 
ment removed every symptom of the disease, save 
the lost w r eight, which was restored soon thereafter. 
Three years have since elapsed and her health is still 
perfect. 

Case 33: Katie K.; age 10. Bright’s disease; 
specific gravity 1002; albumen 6 per cent.; casts 
numerous, both hyaline and granular; much earthy 
sediment; very weak and nervous; severe tenderness 



REPORTS OF CASES 


563 


in the region of the kidneys. Treatment began Sep¬ 
tember 27, 1902, and ended April 15, 1903—six and 
one-half months—at which time she returned to her 
home in a distant city, having been relieved of nearly 
every vestige of the disease. 

Case 34: Miss A. R. B., age 24. Incipient 
Phthisis, with the usual complications—constipation 
and digestive disturbances. Treatment lasted five 
months, at which time every symptom of disease had 
disappeared. 

Case 35: Miss D. F., stenographer; age 22. Tu¬ 
berculosis of the pharynx and bronchi of long stand¬ 
ing; cough severe. Treatment lasted four months, 
since which she has enjoyed excellent health. 

Case 36: E. S., muscian; age 36. Diabetes Melli- 
tus; specific gravity 1036, sugar 8 per cent.; many 
casts; oil globules numerous, much earthy sediment. 
At the end of the first month’s treatment no sugar 
could be found, and only a few of the other abnormal 
Ingredients. In this case, as in all the other cases 
above referred to, the patient was allowed to eat 
potatoes and other so-called “starchy foods” and 
those fruits and vegetables which are commonly re¬ 
ferred to as ‘ 4 saccharine,” which shows that the cur¬ 
rent opinion is not well founded. 

Case 37: Miss H. L. K., age 23. Catalepsy of 
several years standing. The history of the case em¬ 
braced an attack of each of several diseases, the first 
of which occurred in childhood. These were, in the 
order of their occurrence, typhoid fever, pneumonia, 



564 


PRACTICAL VERIFICATION 


diphtheria, inflammatory rheumatism and chorea. 
The cataleptic seizures were very severe and oc¬ 
curred at short intervals, as a rule, there being some¬ 
times between twenty and thirty of them in twenty- 
four hours. At the end of the eight months of treat¬ 
ment the patient was discharged cured. More than a 
year has since elapsed without a return of the disease. 

Case 38: Mrs. T. J. H., age 33. Diabetes Mellitus, 
with the usual complications. Treatment lasted three 
months at which time she was discharged cured. Two 
years have since elapsed and word has recently been 
brought by a patient she referred to me, that she is 
still in perfect health. 

Case 39: C. W. H., banker; age 63. Diabetes 
Mellitus Gangrenosus. Gangrene of the toes and 
atrophy of the lower extremities set in one year be¬ 
fore the patient came under the writer’s care. At 
beginning of treatment the urine contained two and 
two-fifths per cent of sugar, a great deal of amor¬ 
phous earthy sediment, a few oil globules and a great 
many tube-casts, including both the hyaline and the 
waxy. The treatment has now reached the close of 
the ninth week, and with the result that the sugar 
and the oil globules have entirely disappeared, the 
earthy granules and the casts are very scarce, the 
general health is greatly improved, and the gangrene 
is reduced to a mere trace. 

Case 40: Miss C. E. P., age 30. Pulmonary Con¬ 
sumption ; second stage; both lungs crepitant; hectic 
fever constant, weak and emaciated; menses sup- 



REPORTS OF CASES 


565 


pressed, right ovary greatly enlarged and very pain¬ 
ful. Treatment lasted thirteen months; at the end 
of the fourth month the lungs were fully restored; 
about the eighth month menstruation took place; a 
month later, some indications but no menstrual flow ; 
a month later this function was resumed and from 
that time to the present menstruation has been nat¬ 
ural. The ovary had long before returned to its 
natural size. 

Case 41: Fred H., age 40. Locomotor ataxia of 
five years standing; the reflexes absent; paroxysms 
of pain at short intervals; for two years he had been 
absolutely unable to life either foot from the floor. 
Treatment lasted three and one-half months, at which 
time he was able to run a hundred yards at a good 
speed and to walk three miles without fatigue. Sev¬ 
eral months have since elapsed and he is still well. 

Case 42: P. R., age 44. Locomotor Ataxia of ten 
years standing; reflexes absent; paroxysms of pain 
frequent and very severe; from the waist line down¬ 
ward the skin was devoid of feeling. Treatment 
lasted eight months during the latter half of which 
the pains were much less severe and occurred at much 
longer intervals, the tactile sense of the skin consid¬ 
erably improved and the patient was able to so con¬ 
trol his feet as to follow the seam in a long hall- 
carpet and with crutches uplifted most of the dis¬ 
tance. In short, at this writing there seems to be 
great promise of a complete cure. 

Case 43: Mrs. W. I. A., age 40. Bronchitis and 



566 


PRACTICAL VERIFICATION 


Pharyngitis of -five years standing; paroxysms of 
coughing occurring several times a day, and with the 
effect of almost complete exhaustion; had baffled the 
usual methods for many years, and yet the patient 
was cured in less than two months, the treatment 
being confined to the removal of pathogen. 

Case 44: Mrs. A. M., age 45. Hypertrophy of the 
Pyloric End of the Stomach, with the usual com¬ 
plications. At the end of the fifth month of treat¬ 
ment no evidence of the hypertrophy could be found. 

Case 45: F. H. L., age 40. Bright’s Disease, com¬ 
plicated with Dropsy. Specific gravity 1002, albu¬ 
men 28 per cent.; hyaline casts, oil globules numer¬ 
ous, sedimentary materials abundant; all parts of the 
body edematous, legs and arms so much enlarged 
that he could not get his clothes on, while his 
abdomen was so full that he could not breathe while 
lying down. At the end of the fifth month treatment 
was discontinued for want of funds. The dropsy 
had almost disappeared and the albumen had been 
reduced to a mere trace. This patient continued to 
improve until restoration was complete, since which 
he has enjoyed four years of good health. 

Case 46: J. F. M., age 23; teamster. Inflamma¬ 
tory Rheumatism, complicated with gastritis and 
pharyngitis; disease had become somewhat chronic; 
suffered extremely; unable to move in bed. Treat¬ 
ment lasted three months, the result being a complete 
cure. 

Case 47 : Mrs. C. H., age 60. General Debilify, 



REPORTS OF CASES 


567 


complicated with impactions of the coecum and sig¬ 
moid flexure; had been almost helpless for eleven 
years; bowels exceedingly tender and painful in the 
regions occupied by the impactions. Discharged at 
the end of the sixth month of treatment, the impac¬ 
tions; the soreness and the debility having given 
place to good health, elastic step and buoyancy of 
spirit. 

Case 48: Miss A. S., age 21. Chronic Pharyn¬ 
gitis, fauces and tonsils greatly tumefied; voice im¬ 
paired. A complete cure was effected in less than 
two months. 

Case 49: A. C. H., age 26. Pulmonary Consump¬ 
tion; family history bad, father and sister having 
died of phthisis pulmonalis. Ten months treatment 
resulted in the removal of every symptom of the dis¬ 
ease and a return of his usual strength and vivacity. 

Case 50: Bev. J. C. McC., age 47. Chronic 
pharyngitis; for two years he had been unable to 
follow his calling, on account of loss of voice. At the 
end of the third month of treatment he was able to 
resume his ministerial duties. 

Case 51: Mrs. B. K., age 34. Diabetes Mellitus, 
complicated with ascites; output of urine three gal¬ 
lons per day; specific gravity 1028; sugar 12 per 
cent; duration of the disease over four years. Dis¬ 
continued treatment at the end of the fourth month; 
nearly every trace of the disease having disappeared, 
she felt warranted in trusting to internal medication 
for the completion of the cure. 



568 


PRACTICAL VERIFICATION 


Case 52: H. D., age 20. Tonsilitis and Pharyn¬ 
gitis, chronic form. Cured by one month’s treat¬ 
ment. 

Case 53: L. S., age 82. Chronic Rheumatism 
affecting the extremities the more especially; hands 
and feet greatly swollen and very painful; fingers 
of both hands stiff and sore to the touch; cystitis and 
pyuria of long standing. Six months treatment re¬ 
sulted in excellent health and all the evidences of 
good nutrition. 

Case 54: Mrs. C. H. W., age 48. Myxedema, af¬ 
fecting the region lying between the sternum and the 
umbilicus, and giving to the front of the body the 
appearance of a fowl’s breast; the disease was at¬ 
tended with severe neuralgia of the face and an occa¬ 
sional headache; the enlargement was very great, but 
somewhat pliable; the disease had existed for about 
a year. Both the enlargement and the attending 
pains were removed by three months treatment. 

r Case 55: Miss C. P.; stenographer, age 30. Pul¬ 
monary Consumption and tuberculosis of the right 
ovary. This patient had been going down for a long 
while and evidently was in extremis in that the 
menses had long been suppressed, the right ovary 
was greatly enlarged and so tender that palpation 
could not be borne, the “hectic flush” was very prom¬ 
inent, both lungs exhibited the signs of advanced 
tuberculosis, the “dry rales” being very distinct in 
almost every region, emaciation and debility very 
marked yet the patient was able to do some steno- 



REPORTS OF CASES 


569 


graphic work. The prospect of success was poor and 
yet something less than a year of treatment was suffi¬ 
cient to restore this patient to good health, the 
menses having been re-established, the cheeks plump 
and rosy and the strength normal. 

Case 56: Miss E. A. M. Gastric Catarrh, chronic 
form, with strong indications of impending pulmo¬ 
nary disease, such as emaciation, debility, pallor, 
cough and suppressed menstruation of long standing. 

This patient was cured in less than six months 
including the re-establishment of the menses, the 
rounding out of the features, and the restoration of 
both the strength and the complexion. 

Case 57: Dr. D. W. E.; capitalist. Diabetes Mel- 
litus of long standing, complicated with Cardiac dis¬ 
turbances and apoplectic symptoms. Specific grav¬ 
ity of urine 1034, sugar 8 per cent. 

Treatment has been somewhat intermittent and 
has been administered for the most part at his home 
with extemporized apparatus and without my imme¬ 
diate supervision. Treatment has now lasted eleven 
months and the patient has just reported by letter 
“Diabetic symptoms not apparent to any extent.” 

Case 58: J. M.; age 23. Acute Inflammatory 
Rheumatism, exceedingly painful and involving the 
entire body. Treatment conducted at patient’s home 
and lasted one week, the cure being complete. Two 
and one-half years have since transpired without 
any show of the disease. 



570 


PRACTICAL VERIFICATION 


Case 59: J. W. B., attorney; age 50. Recurrent 
Inflammatory Rheumatism complicated with dilata¬ 
tion of the heart and complete loss of appetite. Left 
lower limb exceedingly inflamed and painful, the 
right in nearly as bad a condition, heart dilated to 
about double the normal size, the valves thereof very 
weak permitting marked regurgitation. For six 
days prior to beginning treatment had not been able 
to eat anything, nor could he do so for the next six 
days, the reason being that the stomach was not only 
full of very thick catarrhal matter at the start, but 
the site of a continuous catarrhal outpour, the daily 
use of the stomach tube being necessary. This was 
the worst of a series of attacks occurring at inter¬ 
vals for twenty years, one of which lasted fifteen 
months and others from six to twelve weeks, if I re¬ 
member correctly the patient’s statement. At the 
end of five months treatment he returned home and 
resumed the practice of his profession, doing, so he 
reports, a vast amount of legal business without ap¬ 
parent detriment. 

Case 60: Mrs. W. A. B., age 35. Bright’s Disease, 
complicated with general debility and extensive drop¬ 
sical effusion. Had been in bed in a local hospital for 
six months during which the disease steadily in¬ 
creased in severity. Amount of urine per 24 hours 
only 32 ozs. Specific gravity 1007, tube casts numer¬ 
ous. Albumen 50 per cent as determined by the usual 
heat and acid test and centrifugation. Mental aber¬ 
ration at intervals, pronounced palor over the entire 
body, her hope of recovery apparently extinct. At 



REPORTS OF CASES 


571 


the end of about a year treatment was discontinued, 
almost every symptom of the disease having van¬ 
ished, while the strength was sufficiently restored to 
enable her to resume her household duties. During 
the year that has since transpired she has steadily 
improved and is hopeful and happy. 

Case 61: G. R. B.; minister; age 40. Amnesia, 
or loss of memory, and incoherence of ideas; was 
wholly unable to carry forward his church work. Less 
than four months treatment was sufficient to produce 
a complete cure. A year has since transpired and 
he is still well. 

Case 62: T. E. C.; attorney; age 44. Diabetes 
Mellitus of four years duration. Specific gravity 
1029; sugar 16 per cent; tube casts numerous, com¬ 
plexion very bad; weak and despondent. Treatment 
lasted three months, at the end of which time only 
a trace of sugar could be found, while the patient felt 
capable of resuming his professional work, and did 
so. 

Case 63: Dr. P. E. M.; age 37. Bright’s Disease. 
Albumen 6 per cent; tube casts a few; specific grav¬ 
ity 1007; constipation severe. At the end of about 
four months treatment the albumen and casts were 
gone and strength sufficiently restored to enable him 
to resume his professional duties. 

Case 64: J. S. Diabetes Mellitus of the deplet¬ 
ing variety, emaciation and debility being more 
prominent than in most cases of the kind. Urine 
very scant—another very rare thing in diabetes. 




572 


PRACTICAL VERIFICATION 


Treatment was kept up for a period of nine months, 
though the sugar had disappeared long before, the 
ultimate result being good health and flesh. 

Case 65: Mrs. L. E. J. Incipient cancer of both 
breasts involving the nipples, decided inversion hav¬ 
ing taken place in both. Darting pains had been ex¬ 
perienced at the short intervals for many months. 
No pain or induration after the sixth month of 
treatment. 

Case 66: Mrs. J. L. D.; age 35. Incipient Carci¬ 
noma of the breast. The cancerous growth was very 
firm and located in the superior margin of the gland. 
Treatment lasted less than three months, every ves¬ 
tige of the growth having been dissipated without 
resort to either the knife or caustics. 

It may be supposed that these results were merely 
exceptional and that they were secured by the use 
of every remedial agency that the foregoing theories 
have suggested; but such was not the case. The facts 
are; first, that patients in all stages of their respect¬ 
ive diseases have been admitted to treatment; sec¬ 
ond, that in the majority of cases only a part of the 
plainly indicated measures were used; third, that 
a very large majority of those who persisted for 
a reasonable space of time were cured, the consump¬ 
tive not excepted, and fourth, that nearly all of the 
others were more or less benefited. Diabetes, Bright’s 
Disease, and Chorea (St. Vitus’ Dance) have long 
been considered practically if not entirely beyond the 
pale of successful medication, and yet in the last ten 



REPORTS OF CASES 


573 


years I have had the good fortune to cure the great 
majority of cases, and by means which were calcu¬ 
lated to prevent and remove pathogen. 

In view of these results and of the essential con¬ 
sistency of the theories on which the treatment was 
based, I can but feel that I have paved the way for a 
practically complete revolution in the theory and 
practice of medicine and a corresponding exaltation 
of all interests, professional and non-professional. 



CHAPTER XLIY. 

EPITOME OF FACTS, DISCOVERIES AND EVIDENCES. 

Lest my readers should fail to grasp or remember 
the various points that go to make up the chain of 
evidence submitted in the progress of this work, at¬ 
tention is called anew to such items as will be likely 
to aid them in this important particular, among 
which is the circumstance that the new Vital Phil¬ 
osophy outlined in this volume finds commendation 
in the following facts: 

1. It is founded upon a definite knowledge of the 
Power or form of Energy that rules on the Vital 
Plane and of the Rules by which it is governed, con¬ 
stituting a Code of Principles which may well be 
regarded as the veritable Laws of Life. 

2. It embodies a practically complete and con¬ 
sistent explanation of the various facts and phe¬ 
nomena which are involved in the construction, 
nutrition, propulsion and renovation of the vital 
machine, and, hence, the data from which to con¬ 
struct both a reliable code of vital laws and a true 
and eminently practical science of medicine, em¬ 
bracing in particular the groundwork of prophy¬ 
laxis, etiology, pathology and therapeutics. 

3. It is perfectly harmonious, both within itself 
and with the various principles and precepts of exact 
science. 

4. It is eminently complementary to the Doctrine 
of the Conservation of Energy, in that it shows: 

574 


EPITOME OF FACTS, DISCOVERIES AND EVIDENCES 575 


first, how energy is stored in food substances; second, 
to what element food owes its energy-dispensing 
attributes; third, how and where this element is com¬ 
mingled with oxygen forming the red blood cor¬ 
puscles; fourth, how these sources of power are 
placed in position to subserve the wants of life, in¬ 
volving the explanation of the nutrition of the 
muscles and nerves; fifth, how the carbon and oxygen 
of the nutrient matter thus stored in the cells are 
brought into chemical union, producing animal heat, 
nervous energy and propelling power; sixth, how the 
Yitomotive-Power, or muscular energy, impinges 
upon the motor mechanism of the vital machine with 
the effect of setting it in motion; seventh, where and 
how the waste products are produced, and, eighth, 
how these materials are gathered up and borne to the 
emunctories and thence to the outer world—all this 
with a completeness of detail and a degree of per¬ 
spicacity which will certainly appeal to the scientific 
mind as sufficient. 

5. It is in perfect harmony with the well known 
fact that scientific discovery involves the simplifica¬ 
tion as well as the explanation of the facts of ex-> 
perience and observation. 

6. It shows that foods owe their virtues in general 
to their organic nature; their value as energy- 
producers to their carbon element, and all of these 
virtues to their digestibility—i. e., to their capability 
of being reduced from the solid or semi-solid state in 
which they exist, to that perfectly dialyzable and 
non-coagulable liquid called peptone. 



576 EPITOME OF FACTS, DISCOVERIES AND EVIDENCES 


7. It shows that there is a radical difference be 
tween nutrition and assimilation —that the latter is 
confined to the growth of the body and the repair of 
its abraded and lacerated tissues, while the former 
is confined to the replenishment or refilling of the 
cells of the muscles and nerves; in short, it shows that 
the vital energies depend upon nutrition; that the 
vital structures depend upon assimilation, and that 
growth and repair from 8 pound babyhood to 140 
pound manhood comprehend an average assimilation 
of only six and two-sevenths pounds per annum; or 
about one-fourth of an ounce per day. 

8. It has disclosed an important distinction which 
has escaped us—namely, that the digestive fluid is 
not a ferment, but a powerful solvent —a fact which 
should be carefully noted and remembered, because 
digestion reduces food to the diffusible state without 
depriving it of its organic properties, while fermen¬ 
tation renders it diffusible l)y reducing it to the in¬ 
organic and therefore useless state . 

9. It shows, as stated in a preceding section, that 
digestion of the food must be carried to such a state 
of perfection that the digested material shall be both 
perfectly diffusible and absolutely non-coagulable; 
that is, completely peptonized, in which condition it 
is not only free from the dangers of coagulation, but 
able to pass with ease through both the intestino- 
vascular walls and the infinitely finer tissues of which 
the walls of the cells are composed, thus reaching its 
destination, the cell-cavity. 

10. It shows that the requisite fineness is attained 



EPITOME OF FACTS, DISCOVERIES AND EVIDENCES 577 


when the food is in proper condition to be moulded 
into the matrices of the red blood corpuscles, and that 
this change is effected in the meshes of the trabeculae 
of the spleen and lymph-nodes, the meshes of these 
structures having the same function as the meshes 
of the seive-like diaphragm of the shot-tower—that 
of breaking the material passing through them into 
small particles of uniform size. 

11. It shows that it is probable that the matrices 
of the red blood corpuscles, imbibe oxygen, or 
oxygen-laden haemoglobin, as a sponge does a fluid 
of any kind, and that this imbibition of oxygen takes 
place in the pulmonary capillaries—a proposition 
which involves what appears to be a logical settle¬ 
ment of the much mooted question as to the “ birth¬ 
place” of the red corpuscle. 

12. It shows that the object attained by the forma¬ 
tion and oxygenation of the red corpuscle is the 
segregation and intimate comminglement of the 
requisite amounts of carbon (of the food) and oxy¬ 
gen (of the respired air) to form a non-residual ex¬ 
plosive compound—non-residual in the sense that 
there is just enough carbon and oxygen in each cor¬ 
puscle to form CARBON DIOXIDE gas— the Vitomotive- 
Power—a provision whereby the affinities of these 
elements may be completely satisfied, chemically 
speaking; or, in other words, the carbon and oxygen 
exist in the red corpuscles in the proportion of one 
atom of carbon to two of oxygen. 

13. It shows how the elements of the nutrient 
matter—carbon and oxygen—are brought into chem- 



578 EPITOME OF FACTS, DISCOVERIES AND EVIDENCES 


ical combination, as it is in the development of the 
Vitomotive-Power, and with the incidental effect of 
unraveling the mystery involved in the mental con¬ 
trol of the material mechanism. 

14. It shows that the muscular fibrils are not 
“ endowed with the property of contractility, ’ ’ as 
authors have supposed, but act as they are acted upon 
by the Vitomotive-Power. 

Attention is again called to the fact brought out 
in the progress of this work that the existing theories 
are not as sound and dependable as they are generally 
supposed to be, and that the most important of all— 
the germ theory of disease—is open to the objection 
of being inconclusive, since the propagation and 
action of the germs depends upon the previous ex¬ 
istence of favorable conditions—a lowered vitality 
and a suitable soil. 

But, while it is true that the doctrine of a Causa 
Viva is, to say the least, nothing more than a half- 
truth, it must be admitted that the information in¬ 
volved therein constitutes a remarkably valuable 
asset and has therefore worked a practically com¬ 
plete revolution in the domains of preventive and 
remedial medicine, as stated in the following extracts 
from an article written by the eminent Professor 
William H. Welch of the Johns Hopkins University: 

“The discoveries which have transformed the face 
of modern medicine have been in the field of infec¬ 
tious diseases, and in no other department of medi¬ 
cine could new knowledge have meant so much to 
mankind, for the infectious diseases have a signifi- 



EPITOME OF FACTS, DISCOVERIES AND EVIDENCES 579 


cance to the race possessed by no other class of dis¬ 
ease and problems relating to their restraint are 
scarcely less social and economic than medical. The 
Dublic is awakening to this aspect in the case of tu¬ 
berculosis, and I need only cite as a further example 
the necessity of keeping in check the malarial dis¬ 
eases and yellow fever for success in digging the Isth¬ 
mian Canal, an undertaking in which the triumphs 
of the sanitarian, Colonel Gorgas, are not outrivaled 
by those of the engineer. * * * 

“More than all that had gone before in the history 
of medicine the results achieved during the last quar¬ 
ter of a century in exploration of the fields of infec¬ 
tion and immunity opened by the discoveries of Pas¬ 
teur and of Koch have stirred men’s minds to the 
importance of advancement of medical knowledge, 
and medical science at last has entered into its long 
awaited heritage as a worthy and rewarding object 
of public and private endowment.”—Science, Jan. 3, 
1908, page 19. 

That the discovery of the fact that bacterial or¬ 
ganisms are responsible for the transmission of cer¬ 
tain diseases from one individual to another consti¬ 
tuted an important step in the pathway of medical 
progression, is a claim which will hardly be contro¬ 
verted by any man who is at all familiar with the 
subject. 

That our authorities have freely admitted that 
infective organisms depend for their action upon 
some agent which renders the body “susceptible” by 
“lowering the vitality” and affording them a “suit¬ 
able soil,” is a well known fact. 

That the thing that renders the body susceptible to 
infection is the greater of the two causes on which the 




580 EPITOME OF FACTS, DISCOVERIES AND EVIDENCES 


infective disorders depend, is a proposition which 
will not be seriously if at all controverted, for its 
superiority is evinced by the fact that it takes effect 
in advance of the germs, as already stated. 

That this hitherto unknown quantity in the path¬ 
ological equation has at last been discovered is a 
claim which will hardly be controverted by any man 
who has carefully considered the principles, explana¬ 
tions and experiments set forth in the preceding sub¬ 
divisions of this work, for these evidences are so con¬ 
sistent and comprehensive if I mistake not, that there 
is but little if any ground on which to construct an 
opposing argument. The scientific mind will readily 
perceive that controversy is forbidden by the sim¬ 
plicity as well as the consistency of the evidences in 
question. For the annals of science are replete with 
evidences to the effect that scientific discovery in¬ 
variably tends to simplify matters, by disclosing a 
single agency, or at most a few of such, as the basis of 
a wide range of complex and seemingly diverse phe¬ 
nomena, as already observed. It has been found, for 
example, that all the musical compositions that were 
ever written were based upon the seven sounds of a 
single octave; that all the tints that go to make up 
the countless charms of the floral world are made up 
of the seven prismatic colors that are exhibited by 
the rainbow; that all arithmetical calculations have 
as their basis the numerals one to nine; that the 
countless objects that go to make up the material 
universe are composed of only about seventy differ¬ 
ent elements; that all the activities of the physical 




EPITOME OF FACTS, DISCOVERIES AND EVIDENCES 581 


realm, from the flowing of the terrestrial waters to 
journeyings of the celestial spheres, are due to a 
single agency—gravitation—and that the activities 
on which the various marvels of chemistry depend, 
from those concerned in the formation of the smallest 
of crystals to those that underlie the reverberations 
and destructive possibilities of maximite, are due to 
a single form of Energy—chemical affinity. 

If all these things be true—and they certainly are 
—then who will venture to dispute the leading propo¬ 
sitions set forth in this work—namely: first, that the 
movements of the living organism, both normal and 
abnormal, are chiefly referable to that single form 
of Energy now pointed out and denominated the 
Yitomotive-Power; second, that foods owe their 
energy-dispensing attribute to a single element there¬ 
of—namely, carbon; third, that the various processes 
involved in the early decline and untimely destruc¬ 
tion of the Human Body are chiefly due to the ob¬ 
structive action and intersystemic decomposition of 
the single, though composite, substance pointed out 
in this work and designated by the term pathogen; 
fourth, that the restoration of the afflicted in general 
to health depends for the most part upon the elimina¬ 
tion of pathogen and this, in turn, upon the judicious 
and duly persistent use or application of a few agents 
which are capable of reducing pathogen from the 
semi-solid condition in which it exists in diseased 
areas, to the perfectly liquid state, in which event it 
is easily discharged through natural channels, as re¬ 
peatedly stated in this work. 

While the course to pursue in every attempt to 



582 EPITOME OF FACTS, DISCOVERIES AND EVIDENCES 


rescue the perishing has been made perfectly plain, 
it must be admitted that the work is beset, as stated 
in the preceding pages, with numerous and exceed¬ 
ingly perplexing difficulties—obstacles which will, 
as a rule, test to the utmost extreme the skill and di¬ 
plomacy of any medical attendant, no matter how 
extensive his professional resources, theoretic and 
practical, may be. The most provoking of these ob¬ 
stacles are to be found in such cases as diabetes, 
Bright’s disease, heart disease, neurasthenia, epi¬ 
lepsy and locomotor ataxia, and because parties thus 
afflicted are in a vastly worse condition than they 
suppose, and are therefore unwilling to be as regular 
and persistent in the taking of treatment as the ex¬ 
isting situation and satisfactory progress actually 
demand. 

In conclusion, it is one of the most surprising as 
well as deplorable facts of today that many people 
thus afflicted, men and women who display great 
wisdom and discretion in other matters, lend them¬ 
selves to the vain and delusive hope, founded, per¬ 
haps, upon the mildness and the coming and going of 
the symptoms, that in the progress of time the morbid 
conditions will be obliterated without the aid of 
remedial measures. The futility of such action and 
of the equally treacherous mistake of depending 
upon fasting or some other item in the long list of 
popular fads, is written in terms of delusion, dis¬ 
appointment and destruction. 


FINIS. 



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P. Blakiston, Sons & Co., Publishers, Philadelphia, Pa. 

LANKESTER, PROF. E. ROY, 

London, England. 

LUPKE, DR. R., 

“Elements of Electro-Chemistry.” 

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LUSK, PROF. GRAHAM, 

In “Science,” July 7, 1905. 

MAISCH, PROF. HENRY C. C., Ph.G., Ph.D., 

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MARTIN, H. NEWELL, D.Sc., M.A., M.D., F.R.S., 

“The Human Body.” 

Henry Holt & Co., Publishers, New York, N. Y. 

MAREY, PROF. E. J., FRENCH ACADEMY, 

D. Appleton & Co., Publishers, New York, N. Y. 

McGASKEY, G. W, M.D., 

In Journal of American Medical Association. 

MEDICAL RECORD. 

Wm. Wood & Co., Publishers, New York, N. Y. 



588 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


MEDICAL STANDARD. 

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Chicago, Ill.; 62 Maiden Lane, New York, N. Y. 

MEIGS, ARTHUR V., M.D., 

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London, England. 

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BIBLIOGRAPHY 


589 


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590 


BIBLIOGRAPHY 


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Lea Bros. & Co., Publishers, Philadelphia, Pa. 



GENERAL INDEX. 


PREFACE. 


Pages. 


The author concedes that the greater credit belongs 
to his predecessors in the field of research, their dis¬ 
coveries and failures being the stepping-stones to 
whatever of success he may rightfully claim.17-29 

INTRODUCTION. 

References to the birth, growth and decline of the 
preceding Systems of medicine and the exalted par¬ 
entage, joyful reception and subsequent history of 
Modern Medicine .31-71 


THE STEADY INCREASE OF DISEASE AND DEATH. 
References to mortuary statistics and the declarations 
of our authorities, journals and leading writers—dis¬ 
closing facts and circumstances of the most obscure 
and appalling order__72-105 

THE SEARCH FOR THE KEY TO VITAL PHE¬ 
NOMENA. 

References to the history of the struggle for the much 
needed information; to the declarations and forecasts 
of Plato, Socrates and Aristotle; to the discoveries 
of Newton and Dalton, and to the Master-Key to 
Medical Problems ..106-124 


PHOTOLYTIC DISSOCIATION. 

How Energy is Stored in Food. 125 

Action of leaves and rootlets in plant growth. 132 

Energies concerned in plant growth. 133 

Existing theories of plant growth. 128 

Inconclusiveness of theories of growth..™. 129 

Origination of Vegetable Protoplasm. 133 

Photolytic dissociation illustrated... 134 

Reincarnation. 125 

Stability of organic matter explained. 139 

The circulating triumvirate. 125 

The energy-dispensing constituents of organic matter 140 
591 




















592 


GENERAL INDEX 


The “eyes of plants’ ’ and their function. 139 

The Power that sets the vital machinery in motion 
and its dynamic equivalent—40 atmospheres— 
pointed out . 145 

MYO-MECHANICS AND MYO-DYNAMICS. 

Showing how the vital machine is constructed and 

actuated . 147 

Birth-place of the red blood corpuscles pointed out. 164 

Cellular mechanics explained and illustrated. 157 

Color of muscular tissues explained. 

Connecting-link between mind and body—a great 

mystery explained . 170 

Disposal of the cell-ingenerated waste products. 167 

Fascia and elemental cells—new facts and explana¬ 
tions .. 156 

Fascial and Muscular mechanics illustrated.. 168 

How a minimum of power produces a maximum of 

motion . 158 

How the immaterial mind controls the material body 173 

Human Body, or vital mechanism briefly described. 150 

Important argument and incidental evidences.. 149 

Intra-cellular explosions—a long-known mystery ex¬ 
plained . 152 

Schema Physiologia—digestion, absorption, haemati- 
zation, nutrition and elimination fundamentally 

elucidated . 161 

Summary of important facts and principles. 172 

The living organism a gas-engine, Nature having 
done in the beginning what man has but recently 

begun to do. 151 

The mighty power on which nutrition and elimination 

depend pointed out. 166 

The spindle-shaped cells—their structural rationale... 159 

THE PHILOSOPHY OF MUSCULAR CONTRACTION. 
Showing that the body extracts from the food a triad 
of energies, and how food-energy is transformed 

into the vital energies. 176 

“Migratory nodosities,” or muscular waves explained 178 

























GENERAL INDEX 


593 


Muscular Contraction explained and illustrated_ 177 

The wonders of muscular efficiency elucidated_ 181 

THE MUSCULO-MECHANICAL AND TOXICO-VIVIFI- 
CAL PARADOXES. 

Showing that the slowness of medical progress is due 
to the paradoxical character of vital agencies and 
operations _ 184 

ANIMAL HEAT, OR BODY TEMPERATURE. 

A new doctrine concerning the production of animal 
heat—showing how, where and from what ele¬ 
ment of the food animal heat is evolved™. 188 

Transformation of food-energy into the vital ener¬ 
gies succinctly rehearsed.-. 189 

FUNCTIONS OF LIVER, SPLEEN, THYROID AND 
LYMPHATIC SYSTEM. 

Showing that these organs have very important duties 
to perform, what these duties are and how they 

are perfomed _ 191 

Functions of the lymphatics.-. 199 

Functions of the liver. 205 

Function of the Thyroid gland explained. 207 

Functions of the spleen explained and illustrated. 200 

The Spleen a safety-valve.. 204 

The Master-Key to the functions of liver, spleen, 

thyroid and lymphatic system.■— 197 

THE VITAL STATUTES, AND REQUIREMENTS. 

Rules governing the Vitomotive-power and its auxil¬ 
iary agencies—rules which may well be regarded 
as the Laws of Life- 210 

THE NEW THEORY OF LIFE—ITS HARMONIES, 
REVELATIONS AND SUGGESTIONS. 

Showing that it is complementary to the Doctrine 
of the Conservation of Energy, and solves many 
highly important problems. 213 


















694 


GENERAL INDEX 


(VALIDITY OF THE NEW VITAL PHILOSOPHY. 

A Summary of its more important facts, principles 
and circumstances, together with sundry arguments 
and illustrations—the Realistic Diagram and the 


Myomotor ... 224 

INTRODUCTION, PART TWO.. 241 

Pointing out the nature of the problems demanding 
solution, the fact that the current teaching has proved 
disappointing and the Key to the situation... 242 


EXISTING THEORIES CRITICALLY EXAMINED. 

A logical demonstration of the fact that the Funda¬ 
mental postulates of Modern Medicine are, one 
and all defective—that the best are, to say the 
least, nothing more than half-truths, while the 
rest are either almost or entirely erroneous, and 
hence are largely responsible for the perplexities 
and disappointments that are met with in both 
preventive and practical medicine_ 245 

The Physiological Postulates—Cell-Theory of Life— 

Its major premise correct; its minor premise the 
most unfortunate blunder known to medical his- 

Metabolism, or Tissues-building Hypothesis—A mis¬ 


conception based on a misinterpretation of facts 246 

Nitrogenous Food Theory—Based on a misinterpre¬ 
tation of facts and a plausible but false assump¬ 
tion ... 259 

The Respiratory-Food Theory—Condemned by sev¬ 
eral well-known facts and unanswerable argu¬ 
ments ..,. 255 


The Pathological Postulates—The Cellular Pathology 
—a theory depending upon a very slender 
thread .... 

The Germ-Theory of Disease—The most important of 
all current theories, but belongs in the list of 
half-truths, since the Causa Viva depends upon 
the Causa Vera..330 














GENERAL INDEX 


596 


PATHOGEN AND PATHOGENOSIS. 

Broadest hints that Nature has ever given the patho¬ 


logist —. 296 

Active and hitherto unsuspected cause of disease. 299 

Amoeboid movements explained. 304 

A new interpretation of facts. 305 

Diversities of Pathogenosis. 308 

Generator of Tubercles and Cancer Cells. 303 

Insolubility of Pathogen. 309 

Nature’s attempts to dispose of pathogen; success 

largely confined to the less hurtful grades thereof 310 

Pathogen the Arch-Deceiver and Destroyer. 306 

The Phagocytic Hypothesis reversed. 312 

The versatility of Pathogen. 302 

RATIONALE OF PATHOGENOSIS. 

How pathogen produces the various morbid condi¬ 


tions—congestion, irritation, inflammation, mal- 


nutrition and tissue-starvation and the predisposition, 

or susceptibility to infection. 314 

Action of Infective organisms conservative, but dan¬ 
gerous .. 322 

A good intention with bad effect.. 326 

A serious mistake regarding serum albumen. 319 

Basis of a beneficent revolution. 327 


New Doctrine of Infection—explaining the pabulum, 
or soil, on which the propagation of infective or¬ 
ganisms depends, the passage of their spores into 
and through the body, and their powers and 


limitations .— 327 

Pathogen more dreadful than the deadly upas-tree. 324 

THE GENESIS OF PATHOGEN. 

Propositions in explanation of the nature, origin, ac¬ 
tion and effects of pathogen. 337 

Basis of a reliable dietetic philosophy referred to. 345 

Drifting unconsciously into disease. 342 




























696 


GENERAL INDEX 


Existing methods of determining food values false 
and misleading. An earnest desire to install a 

dependable method expressed. 344 

Insolubility of pathogen. 340 

Significant facts exhibited in nature.. 348 

Verification of other discoveries regarding the pro¬ 
duction of pathogen earnestly desired. 341 

ILLNESS AND IRRITABILITY. 

The ancient term for disease and its implications— 
evidences not of perversity, but of adversity_ 319 

A COMMON COLD. 

Its mysteries pointed out and elucidated__- 351 

CONSTIPATION. 

And its train of evils logically accounted for___353 

PYREXIA OR FEVER. 

A want of knowledge of the “causes and theory” of 

fever admitted by eminent authority_ 354 

Active Cause of fever declared and its facts and phe¬ 
nomena explained _ 354 

INFLAMMATION. 

Its facts and phenomena described but not explained 

by authorities.. 357 

A new and logical explanation thereof..... 358 

EPILEPSY AND CATALEPSY. 

Authorities declare that causation of epilepsy is un¬ 
known - 360 

The key to epileptic and cataleptic conditions pointed 

out, and their phenomena explained. 364 

RHEUMATISM AND GOUT. 

The Uric Acid Diathesis and other facts logically 

accounted for_ 366 

UTERINE DISEASE AND DISPLACEMENTS. 

Essential nature and active cause of Uterine diseases 
pointed out.. 368 



































GENERAL INDEX 


597 


HYPERTROPHY, ATROPHY and OBESITY. 

A trio of maladies having a single cause, pathogen. 370 

LOCOMOTOR ATAXIA. 

Existing literature refers to its facts, but not its 

causes__ 372 

A brief but correct description of the causation of 

tabes dorsalis _ 374 

Closely resembles Bright’s Disease. 374 

Its cause and cure are matters not of doubt, but of 

actual information _ 372 

NEURASTHENIA. 

A highly logical and revolutionary explanation of its 
facts and phenomena.. 376 

FIBROSIS. 

Showing how, why and from what kind of material 

fibroid filaments and growths are produced. 379 

How pathogen produces contracted kidneys, indur¬ 
ated livers and senility- 380 

TUMORS OR NEOPLASMS. 


A new and logical explanation of these morbid 
growths—that they are composed not of genuine 
“anatomical elements,” nor is the disease due to 
“cellular anarchy,” but to anarchy of a vastly 


different order-- 384 

Authoritative speculations . 385 

The deficiencies on which neoplastic growths depend 387 

The existing confusion due to a baseless hypothesis. 386 

CARCINOMA OR CANCER. 

Cancer cachexia explained. 408 

Cancer-producing material has long been known but 

not recognized as such. 406 

Difficulties encountered in experimental research ex¬ 
plained - 410 

Futility of all efforts authoritatively declared.' 391 

Importance of a correct solution of the problem of 

causation . 389 





















598 


GENERAL INDEX 


“Imperial Cancer Research Fund” employed for six 

years in vain. 390 

Momentous facts regarding the part that “flesh-eat¬ 
ing” plays in cancer causation..'.. 401 

Mystery of Metastasis explained- 396 

“Nature of Cancer and of Cancerous Cachexia” de¬ 
clared “uncertain” by an eminent authority. 405 

Origin of Cancer-cells and other elements of malig¬ 
nant growths explained. 397 

The elements of flesh from which cancerous material 

is formed..... 402 

The false concept which has misled all investigators 

quoted from an eminent authority.. 373 

The new doctrine of cancer formation reaffirmed... 400 

The new explanation of cancer causation finds cor¬ 
roboration in a fact disclosed by Yon den Yeldon 403 

HEART DISEASES AND COMPLICATIONS. 

A natural but unfortunate assumption, the crux of 

the symptom complex in question.. 

Cardiac hypertrophy a misnomer.. 418 

Explanatory propositions . 416 

Heart hypertrophy and nephritis declared still prob¬ 
lematic by a leading medical journal. 414 

Many puzzles explained._. 419 

CYSTIC DISEASE. 

Cystic disease (a fine example of the destructive ac¬ 
tion of pathogen) clearly explained.. 421 

SCORBUTUS OR SCURYY. ~ 

Causes on which scorbutic changes depend confessed¬ 
ly unknown to authorities. The various mysteries 
of scorbutus explained. 423 

IMPOTENCE AND STERILITY. 

Mysteries of sexual impotence unraveled. 425 

DIABETES MELLITUS. 

Astonishing increase of 1459% in fifty years and still 

advancing ._. 427 





















GENERAL INDEX 


530 


Authoritative references to the situation disclosing 

a world of unexplained facts... 428 

Causation and workings of diabetes consistently elu¬ 
cidated .. ; ... 435 

ALBUMINURIA, OR BRIGHT’S DISEASE. 

Additional explanations... 449 

An important reminder.^... 447 

Explanatory details ___ 448 

Pacts to be accounted for. 445 

Observations and speculations of authorities—a world 

of facts, but no explanations_ 441 

Primary lesion, essential nature and active cause of 

Nephritis pointed out. 446 

PULMONARY CONSUMPTION. 

Mystery of the White Death.. 451 

A humiliating circumstance... 453 

All disease one disease. 477 

Anaemia plus hyperaemia. 473 

Caseation and calcareous transformation of caseous 

matter elucidated . 475 

Consumptives the victims of starvation.:. 465 

Dehydration of pathogen explained. 470 

Desire for light expressed by authorities. 463 

Existing theory of causation discredited by a world 

of difficulties .— 462 

Explained, but not explained. 454 

Forceful implications _ 476 

Great expectations and puzzling disappointments. 452 

Hide-bound—oxygen-starved - 471 

Important interrogations- 466 

Kock’s discoveries referred to- 455 

Morbid anatomy of tuberculosis discussed by Thomp¬ 
son ..--- 458 

Mysteries of tubercular disease unfolded. 464 

Pulmonary haemorrhage elucidated. 474 

Structural effects of tuberculosis set forth by Green 459 






























600 


GENERAL INDEX 


The fuel and the spark and the demands of the pul¬ 
monary situation---- 480 

The key to tubercular disease. Tuberculosis from 

first to last a gastric disease.. 478 

The more reasonable reasons. 468 

The phthisical expectorate, not the debris of wasted 

tissue ...... - 479 

The staff of life a bludgeon of death. 467 

Tuberculosis without tubercles. 469 

PURPURA VARIOLOSA. 

Causation, progression and fatal termination of the ' 

disease outlined. 842 

Most appalling of all inflammatory diseases—essen¬ 
tially, malignant scorbutus, plus the contagium 
of Variola _ 481 

PATHOLOGICAL COMPLICATIONS EXPLAINED. 

Cause of irritation in epilepsy pointed out. 499 

Dethronement of existing theories essential to suc¬ 
cess, theoretic and practical. 484 

Facts referred to in the quotations explained. 496 

Morphological elements of Cylindroma explained. 502 

Quotations exemplifying the blending, overlapping 

or co-existence of morbid processes. 485 

Slow pulse of Stokes-Adams disease logically ex¬ 
plained. Tumor formation not a problem of 

physiology, but of pathogenic infiltration. 501 

The strain that pathogen imposes upon the nervous 

system. The “aura epileptica” accounted for... 500 
To regard the leucocytes as abnormal essential to 

success. Pertinent interrogations_ 503 

PERILS OF CHILDHOOD EXPLAINED. 

Appalling prevalence in childhood of diseases former¬ 
ly confined to the post adolescent or middle-aged 507 
A recent and commendable tendency. Marvelous re¬ 
sults of proper feeding__ 512 

Baby’s piteous protest against theory-instigated 

wrongs . 510 


















GENERAL INDEX 


601 


Blunder—on which the slaughter of the innocents 

chiefly depends _ 507 

Blunder that destroys the hand- and bottle-fed babies 509 
How to feed the average baby._ 511 

VALIDITY OF THE NEW ETIOLOGY. 

Hypothetical interrogations _;.. 514 

Incontestible demonstrations _ 519 

Logical and scientific data. 518 

Logical and visible evidences—a two-fold support 515 

The secret of our blundering. 517 

INTRODUCTION, PART THREE. 

“Effort to raise therapeutics to a true science”_ 524 

The new therapeusis closely resembles true science, 

if nothing more. 525 

NEW PROPHYLAXIS AND THERAPEUSIS. i 

Cataphoric apparatus illustrated. 544 

Dynamic Medication- 541 

Effects of treatment described and explained. 550 

Exciting causes must not be neglected.*. 546 

Important therapeutic apparatus described. 533 

Nature of the work to be done.. 526 

No restoration without reformation. 531 

Other apparatus referred to but not described. 549 

Pathogenolytic Formulae . 538 

Pathogen productive of more pathogen. 528 

Remedial agents described. 539 

The Aesthesiatone Apparatus described. 547 

The Aesthesiatone Apparatus illustrated. 548 

The crux of dietetic restriction. 530 

The new prophylaxis. 529 

Therapeutic Outfit described . 543 

Therapeutic requirements. Need of careful manage¬ 
ment . 537 

The therapeutic task specifically stated. 532 

Trials and qualifications of the medical practitioner 529 






























602 


GENERAL INDEX 


Utility of cataphoric medication proven by ten years 

of unexampled success. 551 

PRACTICAL VERIFICATION. 

Reports of cases treated and cured, many of which 
were in extremis.554-572 

EPITOME OF FACTS, DISCOVERIES AND EVI¬ 
DENCES .574-582 

T?. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY ...583-590 

GENERAL INDEX.591-602 


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